


A New Adventure

by maarvehl



Series: When Sins Meet Fairies [1]
Category: Fairy Tail, 七つの大罪 - 鈴木央 | Nanatsu no Taizai | The Seven Deadly Sins - Suzuki Nakaba (Anime & Manga)
Genre: BAMF Lucy Heartfilia, Canon Compliant, Fluff, Light Angst, OC villain - Freeform, Protective Natsu Dragneel, Too many characters, Why Did I Write This?, add more tags as it goes on, captain of the order of scraps disposal, elizabeth is strong and everyone needs to know that, fairy tail x seven deadly sins, gowther loves blue talking cats, let's see how long i can pretend escanor doesn't exist, meliodas is difficult, nalu and jerza aren't cannon at this time so not writing it in, not adding every character because there's too many, salty meliodas, team natsu, this is a mess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-03
Updated: 2020-06-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 06:47:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 34,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23467126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maarvehl/pseuds/maarvehl
Summary: To those on Team Natsu, the job sounded easy enough. ‘Capture a pink haired man wandering through a settlement near Mt. Hakobe’.It had not been easy.Besides, nothing about The Seven Deadly Sins had ever been easy. Not that Fairy Tail even knew what The Seven Deadly Sins were.
Relationships: Ban/Elaine (Nanatsu no Taizai), Diane/Fairy King Harlequin, Elizabeth Liones/Meliodas, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: When Sins Meet Fairies [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1802197
Comments: 102
Kudos: 172





	1. Fairy, Where Are You Going?

**Author's Note:**

> I'll warn you right now, this is a mess. It doesn't really spoil the 7ds manga, but it takes place towards the beginning of the time skip. For Fairy Tail, it probably takes place during the one year time skip before they went on the 100 year quest. I don't expect that many people to read this because it involved two fandoms that aren't that popular on ao3, but I hope someone can enjoy it :). This story is a mess but I love it. Give it a read if you'd like :)

To those on Team Natsu, the job sounded easy enough. ‘Capture a pink haired man wandering through a settlement near Mt. Hakobe’.

It had not been easy.

Lucy found the entire thing ridiculous from the start. The job wasn’t even paying that much, but Natsu said it sounded fun. Fun. Tracking down some pink haired maybe a guy-maybe a girl running through the mountains was not Lucy’s idea of fun. Especially not now, after they had been walking in circles throughout the mountains for hours without getting so much as a glimpse of him(or her). It certainly didn’t help that they were all exhausted and freezing from the winter weather.

Gray and Natsu had fought multiple times already, and Erza was done with all of their antics. Wendy was purely exhausted, and the exceeds had used up all of their magic power flying and were now waist deep in snow. Lucy was exasperated at how inane this job was. This was hardly even a job, more just them exhausting themselves in every way possible. 

They’d faced every possible foe, from demons to dragons to a 300 year old wizard. There was no reason they couldn’t handle one very mysterious person. Yet, somehow, here they are, twelve hours after arriving in the mountains.

“I’m hungry,” Happy said, glued to Natsu’s shoulder and taking in the heat that came with it.

“Me too. Can’t we go to town and get food?” Natsu remarked.

“If we go to town we might as well go back to the guild hall,” Erza commented. She was as tired as everyone else, but she wasn’t ready to give up.

“Is that really such a bad idea?” Gray stopped walking as he asked the question.

Lucy hadn’t even joined into the conversation. She didn’t want to give up, especially if this person could become a threat, but she was so tired and hungry. Loke had come out for approximately two minutes at some point in the day before remarking on how it was too cold and going back into the celestial spirit world. 

The celestial wizard knew what the question meant to all of them. They never gave up on a job, and Lucy wasn’t even sure if they had before. Sure, they didn’t get paid that often, but that didn’t mean they never finished it. The group just normally ended up destroying too much or not finishing the job how it was requested and doing the morally right thing. But they never simply gave up. Besides, what if this person went on to hurt people, or worse? Then it would be on them. Everyone would know it, and there would be nothing they could do for those already gone if it came to that. Lucy didn’t want that, and she was sure the others didn’t either. 

Even if silent, they all came to the realization that they had to finish the job. It wasn’t even a question. Erza began to walk to the front of the group, when the younger dragon slayer froze. Her head whipped towards the trees to their left, and immediately Natsu’s did too.

“You smell that?” he asked quietly. Wendy nodded her head.

The rest of the group tensed, ready for battle. Everyone heard Erza requip, out of the warm armor she had on perviously. Lucy didn’t exactly know what was happening, but she trusted the dragon slayer’s sense of smell. If they thought there was a threat, there was. She gripped Aries’ key, ready to bring her out the moment she needs to. 

Without warning, Natsu leapt off of the snow covered ground towards the trees. They all watched as a pink haired person leapt out of the trees and to the right, away from his attack. Natsu smacked into one of the trees, while Erza and Gray made an attack from both sides. A beam shot out of his or her hand, causing Gray fell to the ground, completely unconscious. Wendy was already healing Natsu from his very foolish attempt to attack a foe they knew nothing about. Lucy brought out Aries, who was ready to make an attack the moment her friends were far enough away. She saw Gray struggling to get up and ran to him, ignoring the heat coming closer and closer from the forest. 

Lucy heard Natsu and an unfamiliar man’s voice both yell out, but she was busy making sure Gray was even alive. He was, she found out, as he slowly sat up. He looked around, a puzzled look reaching his face. Lucy heard Aries attack. Gray looked up to his blonde friend, one he has spent so much time with over the years. Erza ran up behind the blonde girl, asking how he let himself get hit so easily. The puzzled look never left his face. 

“Who are you guys?”

Both girls eyes widened, and they looked at each other frantically. Somewhere further away, Aries yelled out. Lucy’s head shot around and the spirit returned to her key. Natsu and Wendy were fighting this person though, and it looked as if they had the upper hand. When Lucy looked back towards Erza, her eyes were still wide and her mouth open in disbelief.

“This is serious,” the requip mage said, managing a faint laugh. But her face stayed worried and shocked.

“Excuse me, I need to get back-“

“You’re not going anywhere,” Erza cut him off sharply. Gray looked like a three year old being told he couldn’t have candy.

“Lady, you don’t get to control me,” he was starting to get up, but Erza pushed him back down. Happy and Charle ran over, stumbling through the snow. They were obviously freezing. They seemed to have heard Gray’s latest statement based on their expressions.

“Gray?”, Happy asked with tears already in his eyes.

“Will he need Wendy?” Charle asked the two girls. Neither of them responded.

“Woah! Talking cats? What the heck?”, Gray shouted out all of a sudden. Everyone looked at him, shocked. He grabbed at both exceeds, who fought against him at first but were just happy to be out of the snow.

They all heard Natsu yell a question. Gray dropped the two exceeds, but Lucy picked them both up almost immediately. The two dragon slayers were working as a team to keep the guy down, and it seemed that he lacked in physical strength. Erza got up and walked over, making sure their opponent didn’t notice her. She leaned over and smacked his head, and it sure did look like she put all of her frustrations into that punch because the guy was out cold.

Natsu and Wendy looked at Erza and smiled. The requip mage just picked up their opponent and propped him onto her shoulder. Gray was still sitting in the snow next to Lucy, both of them looked confused as hell. However, Lucy’s confusion was linked to her concern for Gray while his was purely the confusion of not knowing where he was. 

Natsu, being the idiot he is, didn’t notice. He walked over and put a hand out to the very angry Gray. Erza was grimacing at him, and it looked like she wanted to punch him. The moment the ice mage looked at her he fell back into the snow, his kneeling legs giving out. He looked terrified. Natsu saw that and bursted out laughing, still completely ignorant to the situation. He wasn’t quite sure why Erza was so mad, but automatically assumed Gray did something to cause her anger. He wasn’t entirely wrong.

When the fire dragon slayer looked at Lucy, realization struck him like a knife. She was looking at Gray, terrified and concerned. Both exceeds were obviously just as concerned. 

“Get away from me, weirdo’s.”

Lucy could never forget Natsu’s face in that very moment. He wasn’t one to show much expression or use his head enough to figure things out, but those words hurt all of them. Natsu looked at the pink haired man on Erza’s shoulder, and his fists balled up. He was actually managing to put the pieces together. Gray had pushed his hand away and was now getting up, about to walk in the other direction. 

With absolutely no warning, Natsu punched him from behind.

Everyone yelled at him. Lucy was used to the two fighting, but knocking each other out wasn’t normal. She was terrified of the situation, and terrified for Gray. She wasn’t exactly sure what happened, but he got hit with that blast and suddenly didn’t know who any of them were. Did he even know who he was? His personality didn’t seem to be affected. Hopefully whoever this pink haired person was could undo the affects, or maybe they would get lucky and they’d wear off over time? She had to hope.

They’d ended up restraining the pink haired person and leaving Gray free. Erza made it clear that she wouldn’t hesitate to restrain him if he put up a fight whenever he woke up. None of them doubted it. Natsu ended up melting all of the snow in the area they decided to camp in, but the ground was still wet. They couldn’t risk bringing their opponent back to the settlement, since he was obviously dangerous. They also didn’t know if Gray would put up a fight. There was a lot they didn’t know.

It took three hours for the man (they were pretty sure he was a man) to wake up. They took turns on who would watch while the others slept. Erza had been the first, and she only fell asleep a few minutes before the man woke up to a very tired Lucy. She almost didn’t notice at first, but eventually noticed his stare.

Initially she was taken aback, shocked that he was awake and staring at her. She didn’t know what to expect from him. He seemed strong when he was fighting earlier, and Aries’ attack hadn’t harmed him at all. The celestial wizard had given a lot of thought to that. The man didn’t seem very strong physically, so there was no excuse for her attack not to have worked. Could he have repelled it somehow? Lucy knew her spirit was strong enough to take most opponents on, so this man must be have very powerful magic. She could feel his magic power, and when she really focused it was almost overwhelming. 

“What is a spirit? Is it the woman who disappeared during the fight?”

Did he just… read her mind? Lucy guffawed at him, unable to come up with a reasonable response to that. A couple of hours ago this man as attacking them, and now he wants to have a chat like friends?

“Yes, I did. My apologies.”

He can read minds. Perfect. He also took Gray’s memories, so his magic must be based in, what, brains? She had never heard of anything like that. Wait, he could hear everything she was thinking. She couldn’t reveal anything important, like Fairy Tail or— no! Stop thinking, she bashed herself mentally. She swallowed, trying to come up with a reasonable response that made her sound threatening. Wait, he could hear that, or read it, or whatever he did. So he now knew she needed to try to be threatening.

“Who are you?”, was all she could think to say as she stood up. 

“My name is Gowther, and I am formally a member of the Seven Deadly Sins of the kingdom of Liones. It’s in another continent however, so I doubt you have heard of it.”

That was… interesting. The Seven Deadly Sins? Surely that name had to be farfetched, it sounded far too melodramatic to be serious. Actually, she could use that in a novel, it sounded pretty good. But, it didn’t sound good that she was currently facing one of these ‘Seven Deadly Sins’. Lucy thought back to her studies as a child, trying to recall a kingdom called ‘Liones’. She had never heard of it.

“Why were you attacking us?”, she asked.

“Actually, you attacked me. I came here in search of a new adventure, but ended up being hunted. I have already restored your friends memories, so whenever he wakes up he’ll be back to however he normally is.”

That was a relief. A big one, at that. Hopefully he was telling the truth. Lucy was trying to search his face or tone for any emotion, but he was completely stagnant. Wait, clearly something about his story was off because he appeared to be claiming that he is completely innocent. The job was made for a reason. 

“I never said I was innocent. I admit, I attempted to steal a piece of bread.”

A piece of bread. This job, was made because of a piece of bread was taken. No, it wasn’t even successfully taken. So some idiot decided that meant that Fairy Tail, a very capable guild, needed to come catch a culprit who stole bread. Ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous. 

“Why should we believe you?”, a sudden voice rang out from behind Lucy.

She must’ve jumped three feet into the air, scared out of her mind. They needed to stop surprising her. Behind the blonde girl was possibly the scariest woman she’d ever met, except for maybe Aquarius. Erza was glowering at him so sharply you’d think he killed someone. Then again, for all they knew he had. 

“There truly isn’t any reason to, especially after I took your friends memories.”

All Erza could do was blink mindlessly at the guy. 

“However, I already know you don’t want to consistently keep watch over me and that you all think it’s too much work to arrest me. I came here looking for a journey, and it seems promising I can find one with you all.”

Lucy wasn’t a genius, but if she didn’t know better she’d think he just asked to join their team. Well, too bad for him because he wasn’t even in Fairy Tail. She was sure none of them wanted him to be let it, and it would be an understatement to say they didn’t trust him. Especially if he could take memories, he may be like Mest and implant fake ones too. She didn’t think anyone in their guild would want another person like that, let alone one who they started off enemies with. Besides, who was he? What if he was apart of a dark guild? He had great magic power, but there wasn’t even a guild crest evident anywhere on him. That means he wouldn’t even be truly considered a wizard, at least not in Fiore. However, if he was from another continent it could make sense. Still, as far as they knew most continents did have guilds.

“We will allow you to travel with us, but only to a certain degree. And have no reason to trust you,” the requip mage stated firmly, and she removed the restraints. Considering his magic power, he probably could have removed them anyways.

“Thank you,” he said flatly. This guy really didn’t show any emotion, did he?

Lucy’s mouth was hanging open. They were seriously going to let this guy come with them? Gray would never be okay with that. Scratch that, none of them should be okay with that. When did Erza wake up anyways? She probably heard the entire conversation to make a ruling like that.

“Well, what are your names?”

Okay, so this was happening. Erza answered hesitantly, but she answered. That was more than Lucy expected. Suddenly, they were both staring at her.

“Oh, uh, I’m Lucy.”

“Nice to meet you both. I do have a few questions, I hope you wouldn’t mind answering them?”

Well, she was exhausted. But she didn’t really feel comfortable sleeping with him free. Even if someone did keep watch, it took multiple of them earlier to take him down. Both girls nodded.

“Are guilds a normal thing here? More so, how do they work? You both were wondering if I was in one, but I can assure you I am not as I am not from here like I previously stated.”

Weird. So there was a continent without guilds? He knew what they were, but it is a typical word and she has to remember that there are guilds for things other than magic. He said he was part of this Seven Deadly Sins or whatever, so maybe it’s the same idea just not called a guild?

“Yes, they are. To even be a certified wizard you have to be in one, and once you are in one you have the option to take jobs,” the requip mage stated.

“And can you, maybe, stop reading our minds?”, Lucy felt it was necessary to add.

“My apologies.”

“What are the Seven Deadly Sins? Do we need to fear them?”, Erza asked. It was a good question, they truly had no idea if they were a threat.

“No, we actually disbanded. Our name is only accurate if you are our enemy. There were seven of us, and we protected our kingdom for a long time. Though, there was no longer a need to protect it so we all went our own ways. This is where I ended up.”

He seemed rather arrogant when it came to talking about this group. Well, at least they seemed to be making peace. The lack of emotion in his voice continued to make them wary of him. 

Another hour passed with them asking questions. At that point, he settled onto the ground and simply fell asleep. No questions asked. Lucy volunteered to keep shift, but Erza refused to let her. They all needed to be at their best the next day, especially if they were attacked. It was stupid, yes. They made sure he was sound asleep before both settling into their sleeping bags. The chances of either of them actually sleeping was unlikely.

Lucy refused to let herself fall asleep. She would not be killed in her sleep because they decided to trust some random. She knew that Erza wasn’t sleeping either. The celestial wizard probably couldn’t fall asleep if she tried. Her mind was racing, wondering all about Gowther. He made it seem like they fought quite tough opponents over time. He talked about some of his friends who were also a member of ‘The Seven Deadly Sins’. How weird. Yet, when he talked about them was the only time his voice actually seemed to have emotion. It was almost sweet. Or, it would’ve been if any part of her actually trusted him. Yet, here she was, sitting in her sleeping bag pretending to sleep. She opened her eyes and saw him curled on the ground, in a semi-dry part. She almost felt bad about him sleeping on the grass, but she was not about to just hand over her sleeping bag. It wasn’t like he seemed to care anyways. He just laid down, right where he’d formerly been restrained.

She did fall asleep at some point. She could have been murdered for that mistake. Right in her sleep, she’d never have known what hit her. But, she didn’t. She knew that for sure because she woke up to Natsu yelling. Specifically, he was yelling in Gowther’s direction with flames in his hands.

“Natsu!”, is all she can do before he stops and looks at her.

“Lucy! Somehow his restraints came off!”

“You idiot! They didn’t come off, Erza took them off,” she shouted at him. The rest of the group began to wake up due to their yelling. 

“Why would she do that?”, he yelled to her. 

Lucy watched Gowther sit up and look at Natsu, who was still positioned in a battle stance towards him. Gowther’s expression didn’t change, he just looked between the two.

“Because I think we can trust him. We’d have known that sooner if you hadn’t charged off at him yesterday,” a bold voice said from behind. Natsu lost his battle stance and looked at Erza, surprise flooding his face.

“Sorry, that was also kinda my fault,” Wendy’s voice said gingerly.

“Please don’t blame yourselves, I never should have made myself a threat in the first place,” the monotone voice of Gowther said. He was standing up and walked a little more towards the group.

Then, Gray stood up. The way he looked at his teammates was enough to show that his memory was truly back, and Gowther had been telling the truth. If anything, that prompted Lucy to trust him maybe just a little bit more. Gray looked at Gowther, and the entire team expected him to charge at the man. He had every right to, after his memories were taken and he had to be hit over the head for it.

“I trust him. I don’t know why, but he was nice enough to return my memories, so that has to count for something,” the ice mage said.

That was a shock. Lucy knew that when he wasn’t stripping or fighting Natsu, Gray was pretty levelheaded. But anyone would be expected to attack after what Gowther did, or at least severely distrust him. Even someone kind like Mira or Levy would be wary, but Gray was almost smiling at Gowther? Were they sure that his memories were completely back?

“You have to be joking. This guy took your memories!”, Natsu yelled.

“And he gave them back. And didn’t kill us in our sleep.”

“That is kinda a good point..”, Happy countered.

Suddenly, the stoic face of Gowther that Lucy had hardly seen any emotion on, broke out into a huge smile. His eyes were wide and energetic, and he looked like a kid in a candy store. He ran forward, putting everyone on edge, and picked up Happy. The exceed yelled out and Natsu scowled, but Gowther just hugged the cat to him.

“Natsu!”, the cat yelled out.

“I’ve never seen a talking cat! Oh, I am friends with a talking pig however, and he is the Captain of Leftovers!”, Gowther yelled out enthusiastically. Wendy held Charle a little tighter, not wanted her to also get fawned over. 

After a moment, Gowther put Happy down. The exceed flew straight to Natsu. Gowther continued to smile at the blue exceed for a moment, before regaining his composure. Though, the lifeless look didn’t return to his face. 

“My apologies, I suppose I miss the Captain of Leftovers more than I thought I would. How, I hope he’s doing well in purgatory.”

“Well, now that the job is done I suppose we head back to the guild hall.”, Erza told the group.

“The job technically isn’t done,” Natsu remarked.

“And it won’t be. We will tell them that it’s safe, though.”, the requip mage retorted.

“Guess I’m not getting paid.” Lucy complained.

“You never do!”, Natsu yelled out far too energetically.

“Aye, sir!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I told you this was a mess. Thanks for coming this far if you did :) Also wanna say I was listening to Beetlejuice and anime OP's while I wrote it, which might've affected how I wrote it. Hope everyone is staying safe, and stay inside!! I'll try to update soon :)
> 
> Also, please give me feedback! Don't go easy on me, I really want to improve as a writer. I tried to write all of the characters as accurately as possible, but please tell me how I did


	2. The Sun and Moon and How They Shine Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fairy Tail has always been a rowdy guild, but the arrival of a certain someone is about to make it a lot more chaotic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i honestly hate the name of this story, but i don't have any other ideas because i'm horrible at naming things. i also don't exactly have any reasoning for the chapter names, other than they are lyrics from Snow Fairy (translated to english obviously) and i thought it was cute. this chapter is mostly fluff and them getting to know Gowther, but i do plan to add actual plot ;)

The train ride back to Magnolia wasn’t horribly long, but it was long enough. Besides, any vehicle was enough to make the dragon slayer’s sick.

Gowther actually found it peculiar, the sickness that Natsu and Wendy got the moment the train began to move. His curiosity made Lucy and Gray howl with laughter, disturbing just about every passenger on the train. After an hour of dealing with them Erza miraculously drowned them out, letting her guard down for a short nap.

When they finally did get off of the train they were all in pretty high spirits. Even with Gowther tagging along, his ignorance to things that were so normal was more than entertaining to certain members of Team Natsu. Especially the ones who had been miserable and sick for the past few hours.

So, while Erza, Gray, Lucy and the exceeds had gotten over Gowther’s ignorance and could answer his questions without bursting into laughter, Natsu and Wendy were yelling and laughing as they walked towards the guild hall. They decided to stop for food, still taking Gowther with them like a lost puppy.

“So, Gowther, what is Liones like?”, Erza asked. She still didn’t trust him, even if they had managed to enjoy his presence.

“Oh, well, up until shortly before I left it was plagued by war. The rest of the sins and I managed to eliminate the biggest threats just about a year ago. For awhile we were in great danger… especially one person. But we always beat our foes, even with curses and killer cats making things more complicated.” Gowther finished talking by putting two fingers up around his eye and smiling. 

“Yikes, I hate curses.”, Happy told them all, shuddering.

“Oh, have you too dealt with them, talking cat?”

“My name is Happy,” the exceed yelled with dignity, maybe a little too much.

Natsu shoved the blue cat, flicking a smile at him. “Yeah, they were real nasty.”, though it was difficult to understand him while he was stuffing food into his mouth.

“They made one of our battles really difficult.”, Gray added.

“I think Gajeel said one of the Twelve Spriggan also used curses.”, Wendy pitched in through her mouthfuls of food. She tried to her best to be polite, but her stomach was completely empty after the train ride.

“Hm? Curses are not just used.”, Gowther said promptly.

“What do you mean? Curses are mostly the same as our magic, just more dangerous. I think master said they are used with negative intent, or something.”, Lucy pitched curiously.

“Only bad guys use curses!”, Happy shouted.

A lot of the things Gowther said didn’t make sense. At one point he mentioned demons, but they were sure that the only ones were from the Books of Zeref. After he mentioned about ten more things that made as much sense as demons, Lucy stopped whipping her head around every time something didn’t add up to their own experiences. They learned that Liones was in the country of Britannia, which she still hadn’t heard of. The continent must have been on the other side of the world, if so many factors were so different.

“Oh, that’s not what a curse is for us at all. Two of my close friends had very powerful curses set on them. For example, my Captain, Meliodas, was cursed with eternal life. He didn’t age for 3000 years, or throughout the time I knew him. I only just found out about the curse when the one on my other friend was about to take affect.”

Even Natsu and Happy stopped shoving food into their mouths for a moment. The entire group stopped to stare at Gowther, mouths hanging open. What were they supposed to say to that? Lucy was appalled. Yes, the curses that the Demons of Zeref used were very powerful and dangerous, but they couldn’t just make someone live forever. There had to be consequences to something like that.

“I’m not even going to try to make sense of the two very different worlds we’ve been living in,” Gray finally broke the silence. He made a joke about it, but it was the truth. 

Lucy didn’t even know how to talk after that. It seemed that no one else did, either. Her strategical mind was working to figure out a way it would make sense, but there just wasn’t one. Things had consequences, or side effects. What Gowther spoke of didn’t seem to have a consequence. Something like that had to be powerful. More powerful than imaginable. She gave up trying to figure it out and put her head on the table, groaning.

“Lucy your hair is in my food,” Natsu said, mouth full.

“Maybe you shouldn’t get food that takes up the entire table,” she all but screamed as she smacked him on the head.

Instead of just the usual groans they got from their teammates when they made a scene, there was also a small voice giggling. Gowther was laughing at them. Gowther. The stoic, lifeless and expressionless Gowther who only laughed for blue talking cats was laughing at Lucy whacking Natsu on the head. Right after talking about curses and things that made absolutely no sense. What had her day come to?

Turns out, her day was far from over. It was still morning when they all got back to the guild hall. Lucy had to admit, she was nervous Gowther would try to attack the guild hall or something worse. But when she saw him look up at it with wide eyes and a surprised look on his face, she felt a strange surge of pride. This was the guild she was in, and their amazing guild hall. With all of the people who had become family right inside. Now, a man who came from a great place and was in his own powerful group of people was almost gawking at their guild hall. Well, gawking compared to how expressionless his face had been previously. It was still mostly limp.

They walked in, all of them raising their guard slightly against Gowther. A couple of heads turned towards them, and they saw their master sitting on the counter, with Mira right at his side. In turn, Laxus was at her side, and they were in what appeared to be a very in-depth conversation. Of course the Thunder Legion was nearby, and Mest wasn’t far from the master, talking with Makao and Wakaba. Cana was sitting at the bar, obviously drunk. The other Strauss siblings were with Juvia, Warren, and the Connell family. They were all cooing over Asuka, per usual. Gajeel was with Levy and Team Shadow Gear, and Lily was sitting in Levy’s arms. It was a normal day, in their very abnormal guild. 

“Team Natsu’s back!”

“That was short.”

“Who’s with them?”

“Looks suspicious.”

“Think they got paid?”

“Nah.”

Lucy would never tire of walking into that guild hall. No matter how many times it got torn down, they always rebuilt it better than ever. Even with all of the fighting and obstacles they faced, it was home. She smiled at her friends who had become family. Juvia ran away from little Asuka and was already at Gray’s side, saying something that was inaudible from where the celestial wizard was standing. She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear anyways.

Erza brought Gowther up towards the master. Wendy had wandered towards Lisanna and the small little girl who was in her arms. Natsu was probably about to start a fight, with Happy right by his side. Gray was preoccupied with Juvia, so it was just Erza and Lucy left to introduce Gowther. He stood there and waved, even smiling a little.

“Master, this is Gowther. He’s from a country across the world called Britannia, and he’s the one who our job was to capture. He’s become more of a friend now, and it seemed wise to bring him back.”

Erza’s statement attracted multiple people’s attention. Originally Mira was the first one who looked over, and nowadays Laxus’ attention was on her or whatever she was focused on. Mest noticed because he always noticed when people talked to Makarov. Natsu had been about to start a fight with Gajeel but got distracted when he saw them talking, which led to Gajeel and Team Shadow Gear noticing. Suddenly, most of the people in the guild hall were watching them.

Somehow Erza wordlessly alerted the master to be cautious of Gowther, because he wasn’t acting how he usually was to the strangers that arrived in the hall. To anyone else he would have seemed like a grumpy old man in that moment, but to their guild it was obvious he was guarded. 

“I am Makarov, Fairy Tail’s master. What is your business here?”

“Fairy Tail?”, Gowther asked, perplexed. He completely ignored Makarov’s actual question.

Makorov’s expression was deadpan, and it was directed towards Erza.

“You fools didn’t even tell him the name of our guild?”, he asked aloofly.

Lucy scratched the back of her head, sweat dripping down her forehead and everyone else on Team Natsu’s. It didn’t matter how much they trusted him, apparently they were expected to spread the name of their guild to everyone they met.

“Yea… it didn’t really come up,” Gray said bravely.

Instead of answering, Erza’s face was only a mixture of shock and remorse. It truly wasn’t too big of a deal, but to her being scolded by their master was no normal feat.

“Wow Salamander, you couldn’t even tell your new friend the name of our guild.”

At least now Gowther would get a real feel of what Fairy Tail was like, not an image of them being polite and nice. Well, they were nice, but it definitely didn’t look that way as Natsu and Gajeel head-butted, just about to fight. It was obvious by the smiles that broke out on a select few’s faces who was about to join into the brawl. Makarov’s expression didn’t change from how it had been just moment before, but it was no longer directed solely at Team Natsu. No, now it was directed at the fight brewing in the center of the guild hall.

Lucy looked towards Gowther, expecting him to have backed up or at least look surprised. Instead, he looked just the opposite. She was shocked to see that he looked almost amused. 

“Are you not at all shocked by this?”, she asked him. He was an odd person so she hadn’t questioned him much previously, but this was ridiculous.

“Not exactly, two of my friends fight like this all the time. They’re just very destructive with it.”

“Oh, well, our lives might not be that different after all. I’ve lost count of how many times Fairy Tail has destroyed Magnolia,” Wendy answered. Lucy wasn’t sure when she walked over, but the young girl was watching the idiots in the room with the same look as look on her face as most of the people in the guild hall.

“Interesting,” Gowther said, once again amused.

The fight that started between the two dragon slayers had drawn Elfman, Gray and Laxus in. Even Loke appeared, joining in as well. Several others also joined the brawl. It was normal, and Lucy was happy that nothing in the guild had ever changed. She didn’t think that Gowther would join the guild, but it did make her laugh as she remembered her first time there. Mira ducked behind the counter as something was thrown, and Elfman pursued whoever through the object. Lucy wasn’t really sure who did what, only that they were all fighting.

Natsu got too close to Erza and she knocked him out of the guild hall, looking very displeased with him but pleased with herself. Cana yelled something into the crowd, but it didn’t reach anyone’s ears. They were too busy fighting, or watching the fight. 

Levy walked over to Lucy, Lily still in her arms. She looked back towards the fight uneasily, before turning towards her good friend. Lucy couldn’t blame her for wanting to get away from the fight.

“So, is he a friend, or does the guild need to get its act together?”, Levy whispered to Lucy. She was looking at Gowther, her face filled with uncertainty.

“I don’t really know,” was all Lucy said. She wanted to tell her friend everything, and definitely would later, but didn’t want Gowther to hear her and make an attack. Their entire guild could probably take him, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

Levy nodded in recognition, setting the black exceed onto the bar next to Charle. Both girls heard the conversation between the cats and had to muffle their laughs.

“You’re lucky Wendy doesn’t act like that.”

“Oh, I could never imagine that.”

“This is the second fight there’s been today.”

“Goodness.”

Erza ended up putting an end to the fight altogether, and suddenly everyone who participated was on the ground. Not that anyone really expected anything less. Mira walked out of the counter and helped Elfman up, but Lisanna was right there shaking her head.

Erza scared Natsu and Gray out of their minds, so now they were both sitting at a table on opposite sides. Levy picked Lily back up and they walked over towards Jet, Droy, and Gajeel. 

Makarov was the first one to look towards the ceiling, his eyes widening. Lucy and several others noticed, scared there was something wrong with him. Then, they sensed it. Somebody—no, multiple people with huge amounts of magic power were coming from the left. What was originally fear in all of the mage’s grew into sheer determination as they all stood and readied themselves for whatever threat was coming towards Fairy Tail. 

However, in their tenacity, none of the mage’s noticed Gowther. His head turned towards where everyone else had also looked, but instead of preparation on his face a small smile appeared. Along with confusion, but a smile nonetheless. 

Sooner than they thought, something crashed right through the roof. Everyone yelled and readied their magic attacks, but waited for the smoke to clear to make their move. When the smoke did clear, five people were standing in the middle. One was a normal-looking woman with brown hair, the second woman having blue hair and white wings coming out of her back. The other was a tall man who also had large wings coming out of his back and a very unattractive haircut, and the fourth was a blue-haired man in a very red outfit. The final was a young man with hair so blonde it looked yellow, and very intimidating eyes.

The yellow haired one stepped forward slightly, looking around. He tilted his head down slightly, and asked one simple question.

“Where’s Gowther?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fun fact, listening to Netsujou No Spectrum while writing helps increase productivity by 100%. i also want to add, i know i make Gowther seem very emotionless when he necessarily isn't, but that's because it's from Lucy's point of view. to people who don't know him and what he is, it would probably seem that way. once again i appreciate feedback, and thanks for reading this far!
> 
> also, i'm new to posting on ao3 so i have a question for anyone who actually knows how. idk if other people see it but for me it shows this end note and the one from my first chapter, which i don't want to delete on that one but don't know how to get rid of it otherwise. so basically it shows that there are two end notes, and idk why. i've never seen this happen on someone else's story so maybe it's just a glitch on my side? idk but can someone tell me if they see it too and how to fix it if you know? thanks :)


	3. The Orange Sunset Fades to White and Gray

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Unwanted guests bring unwanted fights in the Fairy Tail guild hall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> to be honest, one of my favorite things about writing this is getting to go back and watch scenes in each show to try and get a feel for the characters.

“Where’s Gowther?”

Half of the heads in the hall snapped towards the pink haired man staring at the destructive newcomers with a terrifyingly relieved look on his face. Had Team Natsu been played and tricked into bringing an enemy into the guild hall? The other half of heads kept their eyes trained on the five people in front of them. The ones who paid attention to their attackers were the mage’s who gave more thought to things, like Erza or Makarov. 

Realization struck Lucy harshly, as she realized Gowther could never be trusted. He probably led these others straight to the guild hall, and they probably had some ridiculous plan in motion. This was all her and Team Natsu’s fault. If they’d just been more observant and not so gullible they would all be safe now. But because they failed to keep their guild safe, everyone was in danger. Lucy was one of the ones who looked back at Gowther, hurt and betrayal all over her face. However, his eyes didn’t even look her way. He was too busy smiling at the group in the middle of the room to notice her or Natsu’s hurtful glance.

Erza stepped towards the group of people in the middle of the room. When they came in she must have requipped to her purgatory armor, because none of them noticed it previously. She was holding her sword to the side, ready to attack at a moments notice. She looked pissed, and everyone in the room knew it was directed at the intruders who just destroyed their guild hall.

“Who are you, and what are you doing in my guild hall?”, she announced.

The blonde man, who must’ve been their leader, tightened his grip on a wide sword that looked bigger than him. The brown haired girl began to step forward, but the woman with the wings shook her head. The woman with the wings looked a lot less intimidating than the others.

“We’re the Seven Deadly Sins,” the blonde man stated matter-of-factly.

Gowther definitely played them. If Lucy remembered correctly, he referred to their ‘captain’ as someone named Meliodas, so the blonde man was probably him. Erza looked ready to jump at him immediately. If their master still used his legs he would probably be in her place, but he was just sitting on the counter looking just as determined as everyone else.

“There’s only five of you,” an all too familiar voice said from the back corner.

When Lucy looked towards Natsu, he was standing on the table with flames in his fists. Any injuries Erza or any of the guys had given him from the fight just minutes earlier were gone, and he looked like he’d just woken up from a nap. Beside him Gray was looking just as prepared for battle. Much to Lucy, and half of the guilds surprise, he turned to Gowther and gritted his teeth.

“And you lied to us.”

He obviously hadn’t thought his actions through, because suddenly he was leaping across the room and attacking Gowther. Erza didn’t have time to reprimand him however, because the blonde man was attacking her before she could. Gray leapt towards the group but the man with the wings stopped him, sending some sort of pillow-type object at him. The ice mage sent up a spike of ice to combat the pillow, but it hardly impacted it. Natsu and Gowther were engaged in a battle and had already destroyed half of the bar. Mest must have grabbed their master, because both of them were long gone. 

Mira was already in one of her satan soul forms, because Lucy watched her slam into the blonde man, who miraculously had the upper hand on the requip mage. Gajeel launched himself at the man fighting Gray, but the brown haired girl went in front of him. Much to Lucy and any other spectators surprise, she turned to metal as he made an attack with some of his iron. Wendy rushed off towards the blue haired man, and Carla had used her transformation magic to back her up. That left the blue haired girl.

Lucy brought out Virgo, and the blue haired woman turned towards her and saw the attack coming. Her wings surged to the sides, and she floated off of the ground.

“Punishment time?”, Virgo asked.

Somehow, even through all of the chaos in the guild hall, Virgo managed to ask that. Lucy adored all of her spirits, and Virgo was like her best friend, but she could be a little ridiculous sometimes. But if this woman with wings was anything like the other people who arrived, she would be a tough opponent. 

“No, Virgo! Look!”

The pink haired spirit looked towards the woman staring at them. Her feet touched the ground again, and the wings didn’t take as much space anymore. She still didn’t look threatening, but she glanced towards where Erza and Mira were fighting against the blonde man. It was long enough for the celestial zodiac spirit to leap towards her. 

When she looked back and saw Virgo, her eyes went wide with recognition. Much to both Lucy and the spirit’s surprise, her hands shot out in front of her and moved cautiously. 

“I don’t want to fight!”

Virgo dropped out of the air and stared at her for a moment, confused. Then she turned and looked at Lucy.

“Princess, would you wish for me to proceed?”

“Please, I don’t want to fight if I don’t have to,” the winged woman said. She didn’t sound particularly convinced of it herself, but she looked genuine.

“Hold on Virgo,” Lucy commanded her spirit. She wasn’t particularly fond of fighting for no reason, either, but this woman had just come in with several others who were now attacking her friends. “Why are you attacking us?”  
The woman removed her hands from their guarded position. “We came here because we need our friend Gowther’s help, and Mel- er- their captain, knew he was in trouble.” 

She almost slipped up, but Lucy wasn’t able to catch exactly what she was going to say. It almost didn’t seem like they came here for combat at all, but the way they barged in didn’t vouch for that.

“Then why did you come in here looking for a fight?”

“They sensed that he was in danger. Please, I don’t know how to stop the sins but is there any way you could get your people to back down?”

Natsu would never back down, not after Gowther betrayed them. Actually, it didn’t seem like he did betray them. Could he really have been telling the truth the entire time? It didn’t matter, in the narrative they all knew Gowther betrayed them and these other people were just another enemy in the long list of enemies. None of Fairy Tail would back down without a good reason, and according to what the woman said her people were the same way. Lucy realized that it wouldn’t even be fair to ask that of her guild. These people started a battle the moment they blasted a hole in the roof. As she looked around, Lucy could see that Gray and the winged man had taken their fight outside, or actually, the walls around them were nothing but rubbish on the floor.

She looked to Erza and Mira, who had the upper hand over the blonde man. He was attacking repeatedly, with seemingly no limit, and it was wearing both of them down. Erza was requipping far too often to combat the damages that were being made, and her magic power had to be low. Mira could get the upper hand, but would just be pushed back. The two of them were obviously trying to keep the damage in the guild hall to a minimum, and it was costing them the fight.

It seemed that Lily, Levy, Jet and Droy had joined Gajeel’s fight with the metal girl and the four of them were easily taking her down. It looked as if it was only a matter of time before Levy made a solid script cage or Jet used his speed and was able to subdue her. 

The blue haired man Wendy had been fighting had been dodging her and Carla’s attacks easily, so Cana had joined the fight and the two of them together were overpowering him. He was fast, and horribly strong. He didn’t seem to want to hurt any of them. Lucy saw him say something as he dodged their continuous attacks, and she heard Cana yell something back.

When Lucy looked towards what had previously been the bar, all she saw was a wake of fire and flashes of pink. The entire back wall of the guild hall must have been burned away by now, because she could see the blue of the ocean. Gowther looked to be on the defensive, which would make sense if he didn’t want to hurt Natsu. Lucy knew that even if Gowther had tried to reason with the fire mage, Natsu wouldn’t have listened. He saw an enemy, and wanted to keep them all safe. Once again, in all of their eyes Gowther had lied and brought these ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ into their guild hall.

Lucy looked back towards the woman. It wouldn’t work. She would never ask her friends to retreat, especially after they put so much effort into pushing the intruders out already. Virgo seemed to already know what she was thinking. Sometimes, Lucy thought that she did.

“I can’t do that. Your friends or not, they’re attacking my guild. To end this battle you’ll have to do something yourself, because I can’t ask my guild mates to just give up after being attacked like this.”

She wasn’t going to change her mind. It was unrealistic to even think Lucy was going to take her up on that suggestion in the first place. That would be like betraying her friends altogether.

“I understand. But, truly, we didn’t come here with the intent of hurting anyone unless Gowther was in trouble.”

So, what, could they sense when someone was in trouble? Well, obviously not because they posed no threat to Gowther before these people intruded. They didn’t trust him, but they weren’t going to try to hurt him in any way. In that moment it was hard to imagine a way for this to end without one side being defeated. 

“I don’t know why you thought he was in trouble, we didn’t trust him but we weren’t going to hurt him.” Lucy told her promptly.

The women’s eyes widened, much more than they had when she saw Virgo about to attack her. Lucy noticed the odd symbols in both of her eyes. Lucy could’ve sworn they were blue before, but now some sort of orange-yellow symbol that she couldn’t even describe had taken the bright blue’s spot in her iris’.

Lucy returned Virgo to her gate, and a look of both wonder and shock spread across the women’s face. It must be curious to see somebody disappearing and reappearing, as Gowther had a similar reaction. That was one of the few things he didn’t verbalize his curiosity about. 

“Um… what is your name?”, Lucy asked.

“Oh! How rude of me, I’m Elizabeth Liones.”

“I’m Lucy,” was all she could say, forcing a smile.

Wasn’t the kingdom Gowther was from called Liones? Lucy could have sworn that’s what he said, but she didn’t know for sure. So much had happened in such a short amount of time, it was hard to remember the smaller details. Even if it happened just hours prior to the battle that was going on.

Lucy looked towards the commotion, and suddenly both girls faces widened in horror. Gowther had been grabbed by the winged man, and Gray was now with Mira. Natsu looked up, now done with his own fight. He saw the blonde man who still had the upper hand against the girls, and he leapt towards him. The man was clearly no idiot. Erza was extremely low on magic power, and Mira was making sure Gray was okay. So just as both Natsu and Erza leapt in for an attack, the man jumped out of the way.

Both Fairy Tail mage’s went crashing into furniture on different sides of the room. The blonde man smiled a little, thinking he had won. He was horribly wrong, Fairy Tail didn’t go down that easy. Natsu got back up without wasting a breath. The blonde man turned around, and for a moment Lucy could’ve sworn he looked surprised. But that emotion disappeared immediately and he once again looked heartless.

Almost all of the fighting in the room ceased as both Natsu and the blonde man charged at each other. All the blonde man had was a sword, and Natsu had melted things far stronger than a sword.

“Fire Dragon King Roar,” Natsu yelled. Anyone who hadn’t been watching him before definitely was now.

Lucy couldn’t help but feel a twinge of worry. Not because she doubted Natsu’s power, but because Elizabeth was smiling. She wouldn’t be smiling if Natsu’s most powerful spell had any chance of winning. Lucy’s grim hunch was right, and the man raised his sword.

“Full Counter,” he yelled just as loudly as Natsu had.

Natsu’s attack appeared to hit him, but all of Fairy Tail watched in fear as it hit the man’s sword and flew right into Natsu. His own most powerful attack had just slammed into him, and he didn’t even have time to dodge. The attack quite literally bounced off of their enemy’s sword, and now they were at a severe disadvantage. 

Natsu would have gone flying right into the ocean if it weren’t for Erza running in front of him. Instead, he slammed right into her and they soared straight through the guild hall. She was beat up, and in her most simplistic armor, her Clear Heart Clothing. They both should have gone flying into the ocean, but a block of ice appeared behind them. They both slammed into that instead, and fell to the ground in a heap. Natsu got up, looking much better than he should’ve.

“Fire attacks don’t work against me,” he announced with a smile. Lucy felt Elizabeth tense beside her.

Just as the two were about to go back into a fight again, a certain hot-pink haired man climbed out of the rubble. The one with wings had disappeared somewhere.

“Stop fighting,” Gowther told them both. The blonde haired man looked at him, and he looked just as confused. 

“Not a chance,” Natsu mumbled as he readied another attack.

“Meliodas, these people were no threat to me. I don’t know why you came, but I know it wasn’t to fight a bunch of good people.”

That seemed to reach all of the intruders. Suddenly, the winged man appeared. The brown haired girl had her arm looped around his shoulder, and was visibly injured. It was amazing she was even conscious. The blue haired man who refused to hurt Wendy or Cana walked over, looking Natsu up and down. Elizabeth walked forward slightly, smiling.

“Oh,” was all ‘Meliodas’ said.

“He might be right, cap’n,” the blue haired man said.

“He is, this girl told me,” Elizabeth pitched in.

Natsu looked at Lucy, and the latter nodded. He dropped his defensive stance and the flame disappeared from his fists. Mira and Gray ran across the room to Erza, who was laying on the floor, hardly conscious.

“You—“, the requip mage said loudly, “hurt our guild over a petty misunderstanding,” she coughed, “And now you want us to trust you?”

She had a good point. They had no reason to trust them after they wounded and attempted to kill so many of them. Natsu balled his hands into fists, and walked towards Meliodas. When he got over, it was made clear how short the man was compared to him. Natsu had to be almost a whole foot taller. He was scowling at the shorter man, and it almost looked like he was going to attack him again.

“I have a suggestion,” Gowther quipped. All heads turned to him, “I will allow you to capture those who attacked you, but you have to set them free. Just let us explain.”

It actually sounded kind of reasonable, but Meliodas, the blue haired man, the man with wings and the brown haired girl all gawked at him.

“You can’t seriously expect us to let them lock us up!”, the blue haired one yelled.

“Can’t we explain without being put in jail?”, the girl cried.

“That’s ridiculous,” the man with wings shouted.

Finally, three people walked over. Lucy sighed a sigh of relief at the sight of their master, who was perfectly okay and in his wheelchair. He did however, looked very angry at their assailants. Mest was the one pushing the wheelchair, and Laxus looked around, displeased.

“I don’t see how you could ever expect us to trust you after what you’ve just done. The offer Gowther made would be perfectly reasonable if we still had anywhere to lock you up, if you hadn’t destroyed our guild hall.”

“Sorry about that”, Meliodas said nonchalantly. 

Natsu was still standing in front of Meliodas. He was just looking at him, disgusted. He turned around to where to ice Gray had made was gone, and in its place was Erza beginning to stand. 

“You hurt my children, and I could never forgive you. But, I will listen to reasoning because there is no way I will let you out of here alive otherwise.”

Makarov may not have been able to walk, but he was as threatening as ever. Lucy wasn’t surprised, however. It made sense. He never let anyone hurt his guild and get away with it. Neither did Natsu, it appeared. The fact that Makarov hadn’t told him to stand down could almost be seen as permission to fight, but the fire mage had enough common sense to know to wait until the intruders answered their master.

“We never meant to cause this much destruction,” Elizabeth said from beside Lucy. She had walked forward a little bit, and stood with much more dignity than she had previously. “Please, give us a chance to explain.”

Natsu looked at her, before seeing Lucy. Neither of the two girls looked as beat up as everyone else standing in the destroyed guild hall. He probably already knew they hadn’t fought, and none of Lucy’s spirits were out anymore. Lucy was happy that some of the fighting had stopped, but as she looked around it was devastating. Because of their numbers Fairy Tail had been able to get the upper hand on these assailants, but otherwise they had been completely destroyed. No one expected that scene until it was happening, and it caught all of them off guard. Lucy was lucky she didn’t have to fight, because while she knew her and her spirits strength, these people were incredibly strong. 

“Is Merlin here? She could rebuild this structure,” Gowther said. Lucy assumed that ‘Merlin' was on of the Seven Deadly Sins.

“No, her and Arthur are still rebuilding Camelot,” the man with wings said. Gowther just nodded. That was a shame, it would be great if someone else rebuilt the guild hall. That would be the second time in the past year they had to rebuild it.

Meliodas sat on one of the tables that was still intact, and the other intruders went to join him. It seemed like a sign of peace, but Fairy Tail still kept their guard up.

“Who are you guys?”, Laxus suddenly asked. He definitely wasn’t happy about any of this, either.

“I told you, we’re the Seven Deadly Sin-“

“Who are you,” Natsu asked threateningly. Erza walked up beside him, and Wendy had to have healed her. She didn’t use too much magic power seeing as she didn’t have to dodge any hits, just make her own attacks.

The blonde man nodded submissively. He didn’t seem like a person who was used to being told what to do, or at least being interrogated. It was obvious that wherever he was from (the kingdom was called Liones, Lucy recalls) he must’ve had a lot of power.

“I’m Meliodas, King of Liones and currently the Captain of the Seven Deadly Sins. Right there,” he pointed to Elizabeth, “is Elizabeth, my queen.”

Oh, that’s why he seemed to have a lot of power. Because he did. Lucy certainly hadn’t pegged someone who appeared as kind as Elizabeth to marry _him_ , but it wasn’t much of her business. It wasn’t like she really knew either of them, anyways. Just because she had a serious conversation with Elizabeth and knew her name didn’t mean much of anything.

Then, Meliodas pointed to the blue haired man, “That’s Ban. He can be kinda weird sometimes,” both of them smiled a little, before Meliodas pointed to the one with wings, “That’s King,” he pointed to the brown haired girl, “and that’s Diane. She’s normally a _lot_ bigger though.”

That was rude. Lucy wasn’t exactly sure what he meant, but it was easy to take it out of context. It was obvious she didn’t like it either, because she her jaw dropped open. The man with wings—er… King, opened his mouth too.

“Captain!”, Diane yelled out.

“Don’t be rude!”, King also yelled. They must have been close.

“Sorry. She’s actually a giant.”

What even are these people? Are they even people, considering two of them have wings and the other is accordingly a giant. Meliodas appeared to be human, but he was so strong that she had to wonder. They all seemed very strong, but his strength exceeded any of his friends. It made her curious about if he was even more powerful than Natsu. That was hard to imagine, but he put up a good fight. Plus, if he could reflect magic attacks back at him and had physical strength, they were nowhere close to being that powerful.

“Why did you attack us?”, Makarov asked.

“We didn’t intend to,” Elizabeth said immediately.

“Yeah, she’s right. We just felt that Gowther was in danger.”

Once again, they said that they attacked because of a hunch that wasn’t even correct. These people must have been fools. Even if Natsu did technically make the first attack, when these people came in through the ceiling and were all armed it seemed like a pretty good reason to defend themselves.

“I was not,” Gowther interjected.

“What did you need him for?”, their master asked. It made more sense to stick to the questions then focus on scolding them and telling them what they should and shouldn’t have done. These were strangers who attacked them, not old pals.

Meliodas looked at the rest of the table. It must’ve been related to the master’s question. For them to think that they even had a choice about answering was ridiculous, but no one said anything. Elizabeth immediately nodded, and so did Ban after a moment. King was looking at Fairy Tail, obviously wary of them. As if he had any right to be cautious of _them_ after they were the ones that attacked in the first place. When Diane nodded, King hesitantly did too. It appeared that even if Meliodas was their captain, they made decisions together.

“We came here because this entire kingdom is in trouble.”

“That’s one way of putting it,” Ban said in a much more lighthearted way than he should’ve.

Gowther said that the Seven Deadly Sins protected their kingdom, so why should they need to go to Fiore? It didn’t make sense. There were enough mage’s in all of Fiore to take on whatever enemy there was, besides, they had probably faced much worse. There wasn’t a doubt in Lucy, or any of the other Fairy Tail wizards minds, that they couldn’t have taken this enemy on. They didn’t need a group of people meant to protect a different kingdom, they’re strong enough. Still, it was worrisome about what this threat was. There hadn’t been any reports of anything too dangerous.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Natsu said flatly.

“It makes perfect sense,” Meliodas responded just as stoically.

“We don’t need your help,” Natsu elaborated.

Instead of responding, Meliodas narrowed his eyes. It was anything but silent in the room, but the tension was so thick it could be cut with a knife. Natsu walked up to the table and stood there, once again in front of Meliodas. It looked like Meliodas was deciding what to say. Lucy felt Happy land on her shoulder, and knew he was just as nervous as her. The two who were having a stare off could break back into battle any moment. Finally, Meliodas broke off the stare and opened his mouth to speak.

“This is our fight.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> writing action with so many characters is very very hard. this chapter is really chaotic because of that. i completely forgot to add in juvia and laxus to the fight so i'm sorry for that, even if i added laxus in after. i also forgot about elaine when i wrote the second chapter, so let's just say she stayed behind. how powerful each character is horribly unbalanced, but i hope it doesn't mess up the story too much. i must have listened to the fairy tail intro piano version 100 times while writing this. 10/10 very sad. thank you so much for reading this far, and constructive criticism is appreciated!


	4. Just Hang In There

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arguments ensue in the Fairy Tail guild hall, along with some excitement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter is so short and took longer to come out. I could have made it a lot longer, but when I read it all back this morning I liked how it ended. Also shout out to my friend who I spoiled the 7ds manga for :p

“This is our fight.”

Lucy knew exactly what he meant. They’d been through it dozens of times, a fight that was against Fairy Tail. A fight that belonged to them and only them. Yet, no matter what they said, other guilds always helped them. It didn’t matter if Fairy Tail had a personal agenda that they needed to finish alone— their friends in other guilds always helped. Their friends would never leave them alone to a fight they probably couldn’t handle. No, they would never leave alone to a fight in general. Not if they had a say. And Fairy Tail treated their friends the exact same way. So if there was a danger in Fiore that they could do anything to stop, it didn’t matter if this was these Seven Deadly Sins’ fight, they would help. 

Lucy knew the moment the words left his mouth that they would still be involved. She didn’t even have to question it, she could tell by the determined way every one of her guild mates was standing there. So, there wasn’t a doubt about it, she was with them. 

“Then we’ll help,” Erza said. Lucy knew someone was going to say it.

The Sins all looked at her like she had three heads ( _if only Lucy knew they had met someone with three heads already_ ). They didn’t seem to be used to working with outsiders. 

“We don’t need your help,” Meliodas said, beginning to stand up from the table. 

Natsu, who was still standing right in front of it, leaned over the man. He sure could look intimidating when he wanted to. Actually, Lucy wasn’t even sure if he cared. All she knew that he cared about was keeping their guild, and if what these people were saying was true, the entire country safe.

“We weren’t asking,” Natsu said through gritted teeth.

Meliodas stood up again, looking the fire mage straight in the eye. Those two just could not get along. Lucy saw somebody get up out of the corner of her eye, and suddenly Ban was standing behind Meliodas. Before the shorter man could even notice him, Ban was smacking him across the head. Lucy heard several gasps from around her, and thought she might’ve even heard a couple of people laugh.

“Come on Captain, we just destroyed these guy’s home. Be nice.” Ban told him with a grin that was way too large for the situation. This guy didn’t seem to be capable of taking anything seriously.

“Your just saying that because you miss Elaine,” Meliodas responded with a smile. The smack across the head didn’t even phase him. It reminded Lucy of a certain someone she knew, someone who was currently about one step away from setting the table on fire. 

“Now, that’s a low blow,” the way Ban said it sounded like he was about to start a fight, but he was still grinning ear to ear.

“Yep,” Meliodas responded just as happily. Lucy stopped understanding the situation a long time ago.

“So, you gonna tell us about whoever we need to roast or not?”, Natsu broke the flow of their steady conversation. Both men looked towards him, and Lucy stepped forward a bit. None of them seemed to think before acting, and if she was going off of past events all of them could and would have set off like a firework any moment then.

“Like I said before, it’s none of your business,” Meliodas told him as he started to walk away from the table. Natsu definitely wasn’t going to listen to that. He walked forward faster than the other man could turn away, and grabbed his collar. The height differences made it easy for him.

Lucy stepped forward again, but Erza placed her hand on the young mage’s shoulder. Lucy, in surprise, looked back at her friend. She didn’t know when she got so close to her, but she did at some point. Beside her was Gray, and beside him was Wendy with two exceed’s flying beside her. Well, there had been two a moment earlier. Happy had now flown up to Natsu, and he looked cautious. Lucy couldn’t see Natsu’s face, and she wasn’t sure if she was happy about that fact or not. She’d seen him angry, and it wasn’t a friendly sight. More-so, if he was angry enough, it could even scare people. It was rare that the celestial spirit mage would get scared of him, but of the rare times she did it was in his anger.

Happy was hovering in the air behind him, but Natsu didn’t even notice him. Lucy noticed the smoke coming from Meliodas’ shirt, specifically where Natsu’s hand was.

“I don’t care,” Natsu said, seething.

“Natsu, take it easy,” Happy pleaded to his friend. Finally, Natsu snapped out of whatever rage he was in and looked towards the blue cat. He dropped Meliodas, and just as Lucy expected, the collar had been burned away. 

Despite everything going on, Lucy heard a gasp. A very high pitched, far too excited for the situation, gasp. When she looked over, Elizabeth had stood up and her eyes were wider than what should have been physically possible. Lucy took note that they were now a bright blue again, and the freaky symbol was gone. She got up and ran over, right towards where the two men had just been glaring at each other. Natsu, looked horribly confused. Meliodas looked confused, but looked to Happy when he saw where Elizabeth was rushing to. Then, a look that could only be described as endearing and remembrance came across his face. In any other situation, it would almost be heartwarming.

Well, until Happy was snatched out of the air like a balloon. Natsu looked like someone told him he wasn’t allowed to have dinner, and was just staring at Elizabeth and Happy mindlessly. Happy, however, was yelling for his friend. 

“A talking cat! I didn’t even know these existed, oh how adorable this would have been growing up! You’re just like Hawk!”, the words tumbled out of her mouth so fast they were hardly understandable. Everybody just watched, in shock. For the second time in that past day, Carla slowly nudged towards Wendy.

Lucy looked to Gowther, who was standing up along with the rest of their group. Elizabeth’s reaction paralleled his back when they first met him, although she turned out to be a lot more high pitched. The intruders had begun to walk towards the rest of them, while Natsu was still staring dumfounded at Elizabeth and Happy. Meliodas still looking pleasantly surprised, and Fairy Tail was just confused. People had reacted oddly to their favorite talking cat before (Carla and Lily would beg to differ on that statement) but reactions this extravagant, from an adult no less, were very rare.

“Uh, can you put Happy down?”, Natsu said blankly.

When Elizabeth snapped out of her excitement and heard him, it took her a moment to process what he said. She only stared, before putting her arms out and handing him over. Natsu didn’t even reach out to took him, just knew that the exceed would fly away. Fly away he did, desperately out of the excited girl’s arms and onto Natsu’s shoulder.

“He flies!”, Elizabeth shouted once more.

“I’ve been flying this whole time!”, Happy retorted.

“Oh, how I wish Hawk could come back,” she said, her eyes glazing over for a moment.

“Yeah, who’s Hawk, you all keep mentioning him.”, Natsu asked. Lucy wasn’t sure how he went from completely fired up to asking questions about birds, but it happened. That was Natsu, she supposed.

“Oh, he’s our talking pig,” Meliodas said like it was the most normal thing in the world. Everyone’s jaw dropped wide open, gawking. Talking cats may have been a part of their everyday life, but talking pigs? Now those were unheard of.

“While I appreciate everyone not being at each other’s throats, could you please explain this threat?”, Makarov asked. Well, someone in the guild had common sense. However, Lucy wasn’t sure if she was happy or sad about that. It truly was nice to not be watching Natsu and Meliodas glare at each other for a few minutes. Thank goodness for Happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote all of this when I was very tired at 2 a.m., and woke up and didn't even remember what I wrote. This chapter wasn't exactly necessary, but every story needs some good filler, right? Expect the next chapter Thursday, but I may be able to get it out tomorrow. Thanks for reading, and leave some feedback if you'd like!


	5. You Could Change the World I know

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fairy Tail finally gets some long awaited answers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got the chapter out today! I'm not going to lie, I really don't like this chapter. I planned to make it longer than any of the others, but ended it around 1,500 words because I dislike how it played out. I hope some of you can enjoy it, though! Your comments inspire me to get chapters out faster :)

Lucy didn’t expect anything normal, but she certainly didn’t expect what they said.

“It’s an old enemy from our world,” Meliodas told them. He obviously didn’t intend to say anything else, but Fairy Tail wasn’t going to go with that. Makarov nodded and raised his eyebrows, urging them to say more.

“That’s all I’m gonna say,” Meliodas once again said.

“Don’t be like that, Captain,” Diane whined. 

“It’s none of their business,” he shrugged, as if that was true. They didn’t get to act this way, not after Makarov made it clear how they felt.

“We’re not doing this again, we’ve made it clear you don’t have an option here,” Gray said.

“So get on with it,” Natsu announced, clenching his fists again.

The two short-tempered men glared at each other for what must have been the thousandth time, and everyone was through with it. They’d had this exact discussion at least three times, and they were not going to continue the loop they’d been going through.

Suddenly, Elizabeth walked up towards the front of the group. Before she had been in the back, hardly having left the table. Now, she was standing in front of Meliodas. They may have been an odd bunch, but at least those two got along nicely. It was refreshing to see after they’d all been fighting just shortly before.

Lucy didn’t know Elizabeth was about to tell a whole story, but the information within the story was the craziest part.

“A long time ago, a species in Britannia known as ‘Vampires’ were sealed away. Somehow, a specific one who was very dangerous managed to escape, and we found out he’s been here for some hundred years.”

Vampires? Such as the vampires from children’s stories and maybe even in a story Lucy once wrote? Absolutely not. She was not prepared to go against blood sucking vampires. Well, for all she knew the stories weren’t even true. She always thought demons would have red horns and a matching pitchfork, but they’ve met plenty of demons who looked like normal people. Besides— the fact that a vampire had been just cruising through Fiore for ‘some hundred’ years was not a comforting thought. Why did it just become a threat now? Wouldn’t they have hundreds of vampires running around turning other people into vampires if this guy was really such a threat?  
She wasn’t the only one overthinking this. Some people just looked plain shocked, but when Lucy looked to Erza who was still beside her, she was lost in her thoughts as well. And the requip mage being lost in her thoughts was not a normal occurrence.

“Are we just supposed to take your word for this?”, Makarov asked intimidatingly. He had every right to ask the question, but Meliodas looked offended. Which didn’t make too much sense considering Elizabeth was the one to tell them anyways, but that was besides the point. 

“No, besides, we don’t need your-“, Meliodas started to say.

“You don’t have to, just know there is a threat in your country and when we track him down things could get violent,” Elizabeth intervened.

“You are the ones who asked anyways,” Ban said. At some point he took a seat on the table.

They didn’t understand that this was Fairy Tail’s fight too. However, Elizabeth’s explanation made things more clear. Before she explained their reasoning Lucy was wondering why they came at all in the first place, if they were protectors of Liones, and the guild’s could protect Fiore. They had dozens of times before. 

“You’re all so serious,” Diane said. Lucy didn’t know if she was talking to the Sins or Fairy Tail. Either way she wasn’t wrong.

The man they called King hadn’t spoken much at all. In a way, it made him the most intimidating. Lucy knew that him and Gray had been yelling during their fight, but that was all she knew. He just had a piercing stare, as he scanned over all of the members of Fairy Tail. The wings in his back were mysterious, also. They were large and a bright blue, with black specks all over them. They represented a butterfly’s wings. Lucy wondered if he was even human, and if he wasn’t then what was he?

“Is that all you know?”, Erza asked in response to the disrespect their master had been shown. At some point she snapped out of her stupor and was now standing threateningly in front of them all. She may have requipped back to her usual armor, but she still looked as intimidating as ever.

“Well, this specific one who escaped is very dangerous. They thought he was dead up until recently,” Elizabeth told them.

“Because we killed him!,” Ban yelled angrily. 

“We thought we did,” King finally said something.

“Clearly we didn’t,” Meliodas confirmed, “We already had this discussion,” he said to them.

Diane also hummed in agreement. It seemed that when one of them talked, all of them had to.

“Well, it doesn’t matter what you thought. My strongest wizards will assist you in your fight,” Makarov ordered. Lucy didn’t know what she expected, maybe she got too used to battles that all of Fairy Tail was thrown into. 

“Come on Gramps, can’t we go?”, Natsu suddenly asked. It hadn’t occurred to Lucy that ‘strongest wizards’ didn’t mean her, or Team Natsu. Well, he definitely meant Erza. Whoever else he picked was unclear. It also took a moment for Lucy to realize who Natsu meant by ‘we’.

“It would make sense for our strongest team to go with them,” Mira suggested. Lucy hadn’t expected her to intervene, and she forgot all about that little nickname she had for their team. After everything, she couldn’t even disagree with it.

Makarov looked at the ivory-haired mage. He was confused—and definitely didn’t expect her to say that. She was on his side about most things, and Mira was considered one of his ‘most powerful wizards’. So he must have thought she’d been ready to leave right then and there.

“I’m not sure that’s the wisest decision…” Makarov started, eyeing Natsu and Meliodas.

“Who’s your strongest team?”, Ban asked casually, eyeing all of the wizards.

Natsu walked over to where Lucy, Wendy, Gray and Erza were standing. Happy and Carla were flying in the air beside them. Other people were near them, but it was obvious that they stuck out the most. Natsu stood in the center of them, and smiled at his friends.

“We are,” he announced proudly. He had no idea what he was suggesting.

—

An hour passed, an hour in which they found out more about their new ‘friends’ and the threat they had to fight with them. Makarov miraculously agreed to let Team Natsu go along to try to defeat the imminent threat. Lucy would never shy away from helping Fiore, but she definitely wasn’t excited to spend days traveling across the kingdom. Especially not with Natsu and Meliodas, who proved repeatedly that they could not get along.

Ban however, seemed thrilled about them coming. They had all just fought, so these Sins knew how strong they were. Strong enough to dominate them in a fight— well, all except for against Meliodas. He was a powerhouse of magic power. Most of what they originally sensed when they felt their power coming at the guild hall must have been his. Just like with Gowther, when Lucy focused she could feel the others power. It was definitely powerful, just that Meliodas’ was so strong in comparison. It rivaled even Acnalogia or the Wizard King. Lucy wanted to believe that all of them combined could win against him if it came to it, but she wasn’t even sure. So they didn’t want to make an enemy out of him again. Thankfully, it didn’t seem they would other than him and Natsu. They definitely did not like each other.

When they left it was hardly after noon. It turned out that the Sins had no idea about anything in Fiore. The guild hall had been their first stop, and they learned that they flew there. Two of them had wings, and if Lucy recalled she could have sworn Meliodas had wings when they first barged in. Still, they had to get halfway across the country. It would only take a couple of days, but they had quite a large group who was already tired from the fight. 

They all knew that they probably should have stayed in Magnolia, but the Sins had nowhere to stay and they sure as hell weren’t letting them into their homes. Besides, the guild hall was destroyed and they would probably be roped into helping rebuild it if they had stayed. Not that Lucy didn’t want to help the guild, but she hated rebuilding the old thing and they’d done it far too many times in a short timespan. The Sins also argued that they needed to get to the threat as quickly as possible, which no one could counter. That was a pretty foolproof plan.

So there they were, heading towards their next fight. Except, this time it wasn’t just Team Natsu. No, now they were hitching a ride for a new journey with six new extremely powerful people. And it was safe to say that Team Natsu had no regrets.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wrote most of this when I should have been doing my school work. quarantine is getting to me :p. i want to start watching promised neverland, but i just keep rewatching season 9 of fairy tail. oops. as always, thanks for reading! leave a comment if you'd like ;)


	6. Floating On Water's Edge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's finally the long awaited time for Fairy Tail to learn about their new comrades.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'll warn you, this chapter does have spoilers for the Seven Deadly Sins manga! this chapter maxed out around 2,500 words, and i actually had a lot of fun writing it :)

They hadn’t even taken the train. 

Much to Natsu and Wendy’s excitement, Elizabeth claimed that the train wouldn’t take them in the right direction. Of course before she figured that out Erza had to explain every town train stations were at, which hardly helped the outsiders figure out the landscape. They may have been smart and powerful, but when it came to solving something they were clueless.

Even if before they left the guild hall they all spoke for an hour, Team Natsu still didn’t know much about the Seven Deadly Sins. Lucy didn’t understand how they had ‘seven’ in their name and only six of them were there. She did briefly remember Gowther asking about a ‘Merlin’, who could be the missing one. Based on how they talked however, it didn’t seem that Elizabeth was a part of them. She would pronounce their entire name, while the other’s would say ‘other sins’. Lucy also remembered that night when they first talked to Gowther, him saying ‘Elizabeth and Sins’. That indicated that she wasn’t apart of them, and that they still had one missing. She was obviously close with them, however, so it didn’t make much difference on their part.

They also still didn’t know how their power worked. It was a question that had to be on all of their minds— because it definitely wasn’t like their own. Elizabeth’s wings completely disappeared when they were unnecessary, and Meliodas could create his own wings on a whim. King’s seemed to be permanent, but they didn’t know much about him at all. 

Natsu and Meliodas still didn’t like each other, something that Lucy couldn’t see changing. As of that moment all they had said to each other were petty arguments that the other members of the group ended before they could even start.

Diane seemed like a really nice person. Elizabeth and her were obviously close, despite Meliodas’ claims that she was a giant. How a regular sized person and a literal giant could be friends was beyond Lucy. The term ‘giant’ raised a whole new level of questions. Fiore didn’t necessarily have different species that resembled humans like Diane did. If what they said was true she probably had some sort of magic effects on her to keep her small, which was also mysterious in its own way. The only other group of people Lucy could even slightly relate to how the Sins talked about Diane’s species or the vampires were dragon slayers, and that was truly just a powerful form of magic rather than a species.

They still hardly knew anything about their new friends. They didn’t know what they were, how their magic worked, or anything about them. How did they even know the vampire was even a threat? If what Elizabeth said was true, then he had been there since before Fairy Tail was even formed. He would have caused some serious trouble by then if he really was all that dangerous.

Lucy noticed Gray walk into step with King, who looked at him irritatingly.

“So, man, what’s with the wings?”, he asked casually. Lucy had wondered about it herself, and surely the rest of their team had too. It was odd. It was as if he was part butterfly or something else that was as weird as the rest of their stories.

“I’m the fairy king,” he stated blandly. 

The word fairy got all of their attention. Was he trying to say that he was a fairy? As in the fairies that their guild was named after, and that weren’t even known to be true? 

“You’re a fairy?”, Gray asked, incredibly shocked. Lucy felt about the same way. She heard Elizabeth giggle.

“Yeah,” King said, sounding bored.

Fairies, existed? All of them stopped walking and their mouths dropped open. There was no way. The fairies that their first master Mavis named their guild after, had existed this whole time just in another continent. And he was the _king_ of them? It made his name make more sense, sure, but literal fairies. He was telling them they were real, and that they’d been talking to one this whole time? Gray _fought_ a fairy. Erza was called Titania, the Queen of Fairies. But that was always just a nickname that people gave her, based on the myth of fairies. Yet, here this man is, telling them he is the literal king of fairies. Evergreen would have a heart attack. No, other than her, _Mavis_ would have been freaking out. Except, one small detail that some would say ruined their guild name, he _did not_ have a tail. The eternal mystery that was fairies, and whether or not they had tails, had just been solved? Unintentionally, by a group of people they were anything but friends with and had originally attacked. There was no way that was even possible.

The information about fairies also widened her mental investigation on their species largely. Another species. That made giants, fairies, and vampires all species that didn’t exist in their world. It was quite peculiar.

“What’s so weird about that,” Ban asked as he walked over and bonked King on the head. It didn’t even feel right anymore, just looking at him. He was an actual, living, breathing fairy.

“We, uh— our, I, just-“, Gray stuttered for words. He looked to Erza to answer for him, but she was just as clueless as him.

“There’s no way,” Lucy felt herself mutter. Her thoughts may have been a mess, going a mile a minute, but on the outside she was blank. Her jaw dropped open the moment King claimed that he was a fairy, and her legs refused to move. She knew her eyes could get pretty wide when she was surprised, but they were actually their normal size. All she could do was blink at them, having zero clue on what to say or do.

“Your guild name?”, Elizabeth asked with a laugh. The group found their stunned silence absolutely hilarious, and it was grating on her nerves.

“Fairies… were just a myth,” Carla said for them. Sometimes, it seemed like she was the most coherent one out of all of them.

“People started calling Erza Queen of the Fairies,” Gray stated. Diane shied towards King, obviously not happy with Erza technically being referred to as King’s ‘Queen’.

Meliodas laughed at the statement, obviously finding it ridiculous.

“Our guild is named after fairies, as you noticed,” Erza told Elizabeth. The blue haired woman just nodded, already having taken it into consideration. She definitely was one of the smarter ones of their group.

“No one knew if they actually existed,” Wendy finished. 

There they were, two groups of people clearly divided, standing there staring at each other. One group had slack jaws and wide eyes, while the other was stifling laughs (or acting like Ban, who was guffawing). It would have been quite the sight to anyone else.

“Well, clearly they do,” Meliodas stated in that flat voice of his. Gowther nodded along, a bit more fond of the wizards than the rest of his friends. Or, so Lucy hoped.

“So, what is your magic like?”, Diane asked, leaning towards Lucy. Elizabeth perked up, undoubtedly remembering when Lucy brought out Virgo. Just as fairies were shocking to them, the idea of people being brought back and fourth from their world must be just as shocking.

“Oh, I’m a celestial spirit wizard,” Lucy told them, hoping that meant something to them. It would be difficult to explain it all.

“We have no idea what that means,” Ban stated exuberantly as they continued to walk through the forest. For such a large group, it was hard to stay divided.

“I use my keys to bring out spirits,” Lucy settled on saying. She could have made it a lot more complicated, and it probably wouldn’t make much sense, but it was too much of a hassle to go into detail.

“Like ghosts? I’m sure those do not exist,” Gowther asked, despite having seen one of her spirits already. He may not have noticed how Virgo fabricated from thin air in the midst of their first encounter.

Instead of immediately answering, Lucy brought out Plue. Diane, Elizabeth, and Gowther all surged towards him immediately. 

“He’s the one that takes the least magic power, so I could have him out all day if I wanted,” she explained.

“You should!”, Diane yelled excitedly as she hugged him. Unlike Happy, the celestial spirit enjoyed the attention.

“Yeah but he gets bored,” the celestial spirit wizard said, smiling.

“Interesting, so the more powerful they are the more energy they use?”, King asked, intrigued.

“Pretty much, but having two out at a time is especially draining.”

Much to Diane’s disappointment, Lucy returned Plue to his gate. She didn’t want him to get cold, and they were just walking anyways. Even if he didn’t take up much magic power, she needed to have as much as possible for whatever was in store for them. After her, they began to ask Wendy what her magic was. Ban clearly wasn’t very observant, so all he knew was that she used wind. He did make a verbal note that she was powerful when he voiced his question, which brought a smile to the young girl’s face. It was refreshing to see, after all of the stress they’d been under. Once Wendy finished explaining, they asked Erza about her magic. Meliodas tried and failed to understand how her magic worked from what he had seen so far, which got a couple of comments from Natsu. The two almost fought. At that point it was obvious they were going to ask everyone, so once Erza finished answering they asked Gray.

And then they Meliodas asked Natsu what his power was.

“I’m a fire dragon slayer,” he shouted, slamming his flaming fists together. Lucy smiled, knowing that he would never tire of telling people that.

“And what does that mean?”, Meliodas critically asked. Even if Wendy partially explained her own dragon slayer magic, it seemed that the leader of the Sins was set on annoying Natsu as much as possible. The opposite was also true, of course.

“Means I was taught magic by the fire dragon king,” he said, irritated.

“What can you do?”, Meliodas asked, even if he had fought Natsu himself, already. Lucy remembered something Gowther once said, about how their guild fighting reminded him of his own two friends. Based on how Meliodas was just itching to start a fight, one of those friends was most definitely him. He also said that they were very destructive with it, however, and Lucy did not feel like having to apologize to any passerby’s who got caught in possible damage. It was well known in their guild that Natsu could be very destructive, too.

“I’ll show you,” Natsu answered, walked towards Meliodas. Erza grabbed his shoulder, pulling him back with just enough force that he went falling backwards. Happy flew out of the way of his descent to the ground, and Meliodas just stood and laughed. Erza took no notice to the mistake that was making Meliodas laugh, which only infuriated the dragon slayer even more.

“We’re not here to fight,” she told Natsu, glaring at him.

“Yeah Captain, it might be smart to save the fighting for the big fight,” Ban told him.

“You’re one to talk,” Meliodas said as he punched the tall man in the stomach. Instead of the small impact that they all expected, Ban went flying into a tree. That was certainly not a sight that they saw everyday.

“Captain!”, Diane yelled.

Erza turned her glare towards them, but it made no impact on the short, smiling man. He looked her straight in the eyes, unintimidated as ever. Lucy wasn’t surprised, the fact that Meliodas fought her in the first place was proof enough that he wasn’t scared of her. That was further than quite a few of their opponents had gotten. 

Ban walked back over, looking a little roughed up but otherwise unfazed. He was about to hit Meliodas, but King stood in his way. 

“If only Elaine was here,” he said. Lucy wasn’t sure who Elaine was, but she thought that Meliodas mentioned something about her before. She was definitely someone that Ban was close with.

“I have to ask, you said you’re the Seven Deadly Sins, but there is only six of you,” Gray said curiously. Turned out Lucy wasn’t the only one wondering about the obvious question hanging in the air. She had wanted to ask about their own magic powers, but quickly forgot about that when she heard Gray’s question.

“Oh, I’m not one of the Seven Deadly Sins!”, Elizabeth exclaimed airily. The others glanced at her, and they all had a certain look to them. It almost seemed obvious, after having said it aloud. The sun was getting low, but it was still light enough to see them clearly. All of the others stood, proud and serious. That wasn’t to downplay Elizabeth, who stood with plenty of dignity. It was just that Lucy remembered from the moment they showed up, she just lacked something that the other’s had. Maybe it was the unity of them, if they had truly been a formal group for so long. She was still obviously incredibly strong and close with all of them, there was just something different about them.

“Then there’s only five,” Gray said, even more confused.

“One of us is back near our home, helping to rebuild a kingdom,” Diane said, smiling awkwardly. It didn’t look like she was pleased with the memory of their absent friend. There may have been a larger reason she wasn’t with them.

They all looked at each other, silence hanging in the air as they decided who would speak next. It worried Lucy, thinking about where their other missing comrade was. 

“The other one of us gave his life to save us and our country,” Meliodas finally said, a sad note in his voice. A couple of them smiled, sadly. Lucy could have sworn Diane’s eyes glossed over for a moment.

The celestial spirit mage felt bad for being worried. She had assumed that the missing Sin joined the wrong side of the fight, or betrayed them in some way. Yet, as it turned out, whoever it was passed to help save her new comrades—no, a couple of them Lucy considered friends.

“I’m sorry-” Gray started but was cut off.

“No need. Time’s passed, and life goes on. But now, we have to stop the threat here,” Meliodas told them strictly.

He certainly wasn’t one to focus on the negative things in life, that much was obvious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i got this out a lot sooner than expected! up until earlier i hadn't even started it, but i had so much fun writing this chapter! i've wanted to squeeze this conversation into other chapters, but it just didn't fit. so why not give it a whole chapter? i'm definitely going to have to make this story more than 10 chapters... ;). i hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as i did, and constructive criticism is appreciated!


	7. Be Honest With Yourself and Smile

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The two groups practice building trust while building camps.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm sorry this took so long to get out!! it's kind of a mess because i wrote it all in one sitting. this one is almost 2,000 words. i think the word 'trust' was said 50 times this chapter. i hope you enjoy :)

After walking for about another hour, the large group decided to stop for food. They were quite a large party, and the Sins unfortunately had nothing to pay with, so they had no other choice than to find and cook their own food. Because no one on Team Natsu was about to pay for the six newcomers, and themselves. 

However, finding enough food for eleven people and two exceeds was not something they enjoyed. Natsu made it a competition, which none of the girls were foolish enough to join in. Gowther wasn’t either, so he also stayed behind with the rest of them. Natsu and Meliodas had already destroyed multiple things based on what Lucy had heard, and she had no idea how far they could have gotten.

So there they were, setting up camp. Because they were such a large group they needed to clear bushes, or else they would have been in different areas. Lucy wasn’t particularly opposed to that, considering the other group could kill them in her sleep. She had thought the same thing about Gowther, however, and now he was the one she trusted most in the group.

Lucy and Wendy had been a little far from the others, trying to find sticks that were actually dry. They were definitely surprised when Erza agreed to stay with the other girls and Gowther, but she could handle herself if it was necessary. When Lucy really thought about it, she was probably trying to see how much they could trust their new ‘friends’. Lucy was pretty sure Elizabeth could be trusted, based on how much she wanted them to trust her. It could be a trick, but she seemed earnest. The celestial spirit mage really wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt. 

“Do you trust them?”, Wendy asked Lucy as they looked for a dry spot.

“I want to, but some of them seem suspicious,” Lucy told her.

“They haven’t given us any reason to after they attacked our guild like that,” Charle pitched in. She wasn’t exactly wrong.

“But Elizabeth seems like she’s trying to earn our trust,” Lucy reasoned.

“That’s what I noticed, but Charle said it could be a trick,” Wendy answered. The white exceed just nodded in response.

“I’m guessing Erza is trying to figure out if we can trust them,” Lucy said with confidence.

“Yes, but most of the guys aren’t there. They are the ones I really don’t trust,” Charle said.

All Lucy could do was nod, considering that Charle wasn’t wrong. She almost wanted her to be, because she wanted to trust these people. Her and Team Natsu were following these newcomers blindly into a fight, and for that they had to put at least a little bit of faith in them. They would never be able to fight side by side without trusting each other, and they would lose. So in the days it would take them to get across the country, they had to build some sort of foundation of trust.

“Found some!”, Wendy yelled, breaking Lucy out of her thoughts. She ran over to help her collect it all.

When they got back to where they agreed to set up camp, they all looked to be in somewhat good sprits. They had set up a spot for the fire, and managed to clear a large enough area for them all to squeeze into when night came. It would be very dark soon enough, and the guys would be hunting in the dark if they didn’t get enough food. Lucy and Wendy dropped the dry sticks into the one completely dry spot that they had on the ground, and Erza made a small fire.

“I don’t wanna sleep on the ground,” Diane complained out of nowhere. 

“It’s not that bad,” Erza said, as they had obviously been mid-conversation when they got back.

“But… bugs!”, Diane yelled out in response. 

“They don’t annoy you too much,” Lucy tried to tell her. Had they never had to camp? It just didn’t seem realistic if they had been at war.

“Have you not camped before?”, Wendy voiced the question that was in Lucy’s mind.

“No, we used to live in a tavern that… well, it’s hard to explain, but it could move around. So we never had to camp.” Elizabeth said. All Lucy could imagine was that it somehow teleported, but she had a feeling it was more complex than that if she couldn’t outright say it.

“The tavern was on a giant pig,” Gowther bluntly announced.

A giant pig? Were these people straight out of a fairytale? It sure seemed like it with everything crazy they had said before. Lucy and her friends must have all had the same look on their faces, because Diane laughed.

“You idiot, that sounds crazy to most people,” she laughed at Gowther.   
Elizabeth joined in her laughter for a moment, but it died down quickly. They all fell into a very awkward silence as they prepared the area. It must have stormed because it was a mess.

“If you don’t mind my asking,” Erza broke the silence, “how are you close with these people if you are truly a giant?”

It was a good question, Lucy had been very curious herself. She probably had some sort of spell that could keep her small. Yet, still, it didn’t make sense. She should at least have had friends who were giants if it was her own race. Her and King were obviously lovers, so Lucy didn’t understand how she could get close with people a fraction of her size. If her being a giant really meant that she was huge, it could even have been a form of magic. Lucy wondered if she could alter her size to whatever she wanted, or if there was just her normal size, and her appearing like a human under some sort of spell.

“It’s not that difficult really, I’m used to it, and it didn’t take long for the other Sins and Elizabeth to get used to it too,” she smiled as she spoke, distracted from her previous worries, “And our friend Merlin put a spell on me so I could be small, and I have a potion to make me normal again. But I only have one, so I have to use it at the right time.”

“Wow, I can’t imagine living like that,” Wendy said immediately. Lucy swore she heard Charle scold her.

“Like I said, it’s not that bad,” Diane said with a smile. She was impossibly positive.

“Interesting,” was all Erza said.

“You guys talk about Merlin a lot,” Lucy said. She hoped she wasn’t overstepping her bounds, but she still wanted to continue finding out more about them.

“She _is_ one of us,” Gowther said stagnantly as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Lucy almost didn’t notice, but Elizabeth and Diane passed an uneasy look between them. Gowther’s back was to them both, but they both looked at him for a moment. There was definitely something they weren’t saying and all of the fairies knew it. None of them had time to push the matter, however, because a very triumphant looking Meliodas walked in holding enough food for all of them. 

Natsu was close behind Meliodas, his glare burning into him. Behind him were Gray, Ban, and King. They were all talking about something animatedly, and looked to be in good spirits. Happy flew over all of them and towards Lucy. When they walked over, Meliodas and Natsu were holding about the same amount of fish and other creatures, some that Lucy hardly considered edible.

“I’ll get started on cooking,” Meliodas said happily. Lucy wasn’t opposed to it, but all of the Sins and Elizabeth’s head whipped up with wide eyes.

“No!”, they practically yelled simultaneously.

“I’ll cook,” Ban said as he waltzed over to the fire. He looked at it twice, confused, before saying, “We’re gonna need a bigger fire for all this.”

“I got it,” Natsu said immediately, and breathed more fire onto it. It grew twice in size. He was in a surprisingly good mood after sulking his way back. Was there a chance him and Meliodas actually got along?

Ban turned out to be a surprisingly good cook. They all ate their delicious food, and Meliodas and Natsu remained somewhat civil when they didn’t acknowledge each others presence. Lucy had gained some trust in their new friends, but she was still wary of Meliodas, Ban, and King. The girls were actually nice, and she trusted Gowther already. Gray was suddenly friends with Ban and King, laughing with them both. Ban and King didn’t seem to get along well, but Gray didn’t care. It took most of dinner for Lucy to realize he was doing it on purpose, trying to learn things about them. It made a lot more sense than him suddenly opening up. Natsu didn’t understand, however, and it was clearly grating on his nerves.

The forest was dark when they all finally finished eating. Because of their contest on who would get the most food— which Natsu and Meliodas took far too seriously, they had more than enough food. They were about to put out the fire when Gray spoke up.

“So, we told you about our magic, why don’t you tell us about yours?”

Lucy hadn’t even thought of that. Out of all of the little things she had been obsessing over, that hadn’t even crossed her mind. She knew that Diane was a giant and could turn to metal, Gowther could affect the mind, King had wings and some sort of reinforced pillow-type object, and that Ban was fast enough to dodge multiple peoples attacks. She knew nothing about Elizabeth or Meliodas’ magic, but she did know that he was insanely strong. When she really thought about it, she didn’t know how any of their attacks actually worked. Lucy and her friends only knew about their magic from a visual standpoint. So, Gray was smart to ask that question. 

It looked like Diane was about to talk, but Meliodas stepped forward. He had a cocky grin on his face that Lucy decided she did not like. She saw Natsu tense beside her.

“You’ll have to wait and see,” Meliodas stated, still smiling. 

“No,” Natsu told him, gritting his teeth.

“It’ll take too long,” he said in response.

“I don’t care,” the dragon slayer said, moving forward. Erza put her arm out in front of him.

“It’s only fair,” Erza said.

“All you’ll do is question us, and any trust you have will be gone. It’s a waste of time,” Meliodas reasoned. This time, the rest of his group seemed to consider it.

“He’s right, you have to trust us on this,” Elizabeth said, stepping next to him.

Lucy knew that there was no way they were going to accept that. She heard someone—probably Gray, scoff.

“Fine, but this only makes me trust you less,” Erza said.

And with that, Erza put out the fire and they were all left in darkness. Luckily, Lucy was right near her sleeping bag so it wasn’t a hassle. She heard others rustling, trying to find them in the darkness. The only light was that of the moon and stars, but through the trees there was almost none. Lucy resisted laughing when she heard someone curse.

“You couldn’t have waited to put out the fire?”, Ban asked loudly.

Trust was definitely the most important thing in the equation they were facing. They had eleven people who would definitely be capable of defeating one opponent, or at least she hoped. And to achieve that, they needed to have faith in each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> once again, i'm sorry this took longer to get out. i'm not that happy with how this came out, unfortunately. i don't like how much the recent chapters depend so much on dialogue. my friend is the only reason i got this done, so thanks to her :). i also changed the amount of chapters to 12, but it still might change. thank you for reading this far, i really do appreciate all of your kudos and comments <3


	8. You're Walking Your Way, But Hang in There!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Sins and the Fairies prepare for an upcoming battle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i've had a bit of a block when it comes to writing this story, so that's why this is shorter than the others and took so long to get out. now that action will begin soon, i hope i can get the chapters out quickly again.

The next two days passed slowly as they traveled through the mountains.

They regrettably found out that they had been going the wrong way for hours on their second day, and had to backtrack completely. Natsu and Meliodas had some less than friendly words to say to each other about that. Though, they had been getting along better than they originally had. That didn’t mean much, but it was improvement. Diane and Erza had gotten friendly with each other, and spent a good bit of time on their journey conversing. Lucy was pretty sure it was about how obnoxious their teams could be, and was silently hoping she wasn’t lumped into that.

Lucy herself had been talking to Elizabeth a lot. They were similar— in certain aspects. They both came from a rich family, and they both had to leave. However, their reasons for leaving were very different. While Elizabeth’s childhood was all happiness and smiles, Lucy had been neglected by her father. Of course she had her happy moments with her mother and Aquarius, but it was clearly different. There was one trait, however, that both of them shared. They both wanted to protect their friends and family, and they were determined to do so whenever it was necessary. 

Lucy was broken out of her conversation when she saw two people talking. They were in the front of the group, and there was no fight breaking out. They looked… pleasant. Elizabeth also noticed, and Lucy heard her giggle. It was hard to suppress her own laugh, because Natsu and Meliodas were having a conversation that didn’t involve fighting. Or at least they were for a minute, before Natsu’s eyes widened and he was obviously offended by something the other man said. Then all hell broke loose as he punched him. 

After separating Natsu and Meliodas, they had decided to make another camp. According to the sins they were close to the location of the vampire. Being close meant that the fairies needed to be informed of everything about him, or they would be rendered useless in the battle. That wasn’t something Meliodas was necessarily against, considering his ‘it’s our fight’ speech, but that didn’t mean anything anymore. They did not travel all that way just to go back to the guild hall.

The guys were forced to forego their food-gathering contest so that they could all sit down faster. When they weren’t goofing around, the group got their camp set up relatively fast. It was only a matter of time before the guys got back with their food.

“Meliodas isn’t a bad person,” Elizabeth said out of the blue. Diane and Gowther looked surprised at the outburst, but nodded in agreement. Charle raised her cat-eyebrows, not exactly believing her statement. Erza turned around, silently prompting her to go on. 

“He just wants to eliminate the threat as easily as possible,” she continued, “and he never meant to harm you guys.”

Lucy knew what she was trying to convey, and she clearly believed it wholeheartedly, but based on how he acted it wasn’t that clear. She could tell that he had good intentions, but the way he acted towards them wasn’t the nicest. Yet, she wanted to believe that didn’t make him a bad person. 

“She’s right,” Diane said pointlessly. Lucy believed her new friends, but not everyone would.

Before they could continue the conversation, they all walked back. Natsu and Meliodas were bickering and didn’t even notice the awkward silence that had fell over the group. Natsu lit the fire, and they began to cook the food. 

“So, you guys gonna tell us about the vampire we have to fight?”, Gray said, unaware of the tension.

“They’re extremely dangerous and lethal,” King said, as if that wasn’t obvious because they had traveled so far to fight it.

“His name is Torror, and we killed every vampire but him over ten years ago,” Meliodas said promptly.

“So he’s kinda mad,” Ban continued. If they killed his entire race, then that was most definitely an understatement.

“How does their magic work?”, Erza asked.

“They don’t use magic like you do,” Meliodas said as if that was an answer.

“They can drain your blood, which will kill you and let them control you,” Elizabeth said for him.

That was… interesting, to say the least. The drinking blood part was like everything from stories that Lucy had ever read, but the possession part was terrifying. She definitely did not want to be made a dead slave.

“He also regenerates extremely fast,” Meliodas said, “It should be easy for us to kill him, but I don’t know about you all.”

More of him doubting them, of course. It really backtracked from what Elizabeth had been telling them just minutes before.

“We’ll handle it fine,” Erza said calmly. 

“Yeah, ‘xcept Captain can’t get too close or the vampire will drink his blood and he’ll regenerate before you can get another hit on him,” Ban said.

“Why?”, Wendy asked.

“If they drink a demons blood it makes them regenerate even faster,” Diane said, casually.

A demons blood? Was that their way of saying that Meliodas was a literal demon, such as one from the Books of Zeref, or was there another person out there writing books that made life? Lucy wanted to pretend she hadn’t heard that, but then Diane’s hand clamped over her mouth and almost every head whipped towards her. No one ignored the phrase.

“You’re a _demon_?”, Erza asked Meliodas, standing up.

“Ah, no, I didn’t mean that-“ Diane had started to yell, but was cut off.

“Yep,” Meliodas interjected as if that was normal.

“I thought all of Zeref’s minions died,” Gray said through gritted teeth.

All of the Sins looked confused and ignored Gray’s comment. It was worrying, but something told Lucy that Meliodas wasn’t connected to Zeref. She wasn’t sure why, but he just didn’t seem like the others. He hadn’t been from a continent anywhere close to them, let alone Ishgar or Alakitacia.

“I’m not a minion. I’m part of the demon race,” Meliodas flatly stated.

So, Britannia, which had vampires, giants, fairies, and probably even more wild things, had a demon race. He didn’t seem to be particularly ‘evil’, but that didn’t make her want to trust him anymore.

“This is why we didn’t tell you about our magic,” King said.

“I’m sorry!”, Diane whined.

“It’s okay Diane, they were going to find out eventually,” Meliodas told her, “I don’t know why that put all of you on edge, but this doesn’t change anything for me.”

He didn’t know their experiences with demons, just like she definitely didn’t know their’s. If she wasn’t so cautious of him in that moment, Lucy almost could have felt bad for them. She doubted that the demons from their world were all positive and good. When she really thought about it, their entire group was odd. Ban and Elizabeth appeared human, but they all did for the most part. So she had no idea what race they could be. They were definitely an odd bunch.

It took awhile, but after a lot of coaxing from Elizabeth and the other Sins, the fairies put down their guard. They had a fight the next day, and needed a good night of rest. That didn’t change how uncomfortable it made Lucy, or any of her friends, to have to sleep in close proximity to a demon. 

Natsu was definitely the most put-off by it. He had the worst experiences with demons, and he didn’t trust Meliodas to begin with. So whatever foundation they had built up from that short civil conversation they had when they were traveling was gone. It didn’t matter that much, because the next day they would go into a fight that they should be able to win and then the Sins would be gone. Then, they could return to normal life. If their life was ever normal to begin with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i did not plan to include the 'meliodas is a demon' conversation this early at all, but sometimes things just happen. i'll be honest, the only reason i'm getting this up right now is thanks to your kudos and comments, so thank you! i hope you all enjoyed, and i'll try to get the next chapter up soon!


	9. The Moon and Sun High-Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chaos ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this story has officially hit 20k words! i never expected it to get this long. also, just a psa- there will be references to 'Vampires of Edinburgh'. you don't have to read it to understand, but a couple of things will make more sense if you do. not so much this chapter, but definitely in the upcoming chapters. if you usually read manga's it is really good and only has 3 chapters, so i definitely recommend it.

The early morning had been filled with awkward tension and silence. Just like every other morning since they started this odd journey, they woke up the moment the sun began to come up and started walking again. The groups didn’t say anything to each other, and Lucy didn’t know how to start a conversation with her own friends that wasn’t about what had happened the night before. So, she didn’t say anything. 

Elizabeth and Meliodas were talking, and had random interjections from Ban or Gowther. Their conversation was lighthearted, talking about their kingdom. It was interesting to hear about it. They were the rulers of the kingdom, so they knew everything about it. Of course, they were talking about boring things that she didn’t even know a king and queen needed to worry about, but some of it was interesting. 

She was also reminded of the fact that King was the fairy king. It was something she still hadn’t managed to wrap her head around. It didn’t make sense to her how they could say the Seven Deadly Sins disbanded, when here most of them were, going into battle. She was broken out of her thoughts when a certain blue cat landed on her shoulder.

“I don’t trust ‘em,” Natsu was suddenly at her side and talking in a hushed voice.

“I don’t either,” was all she said.

“There’s no way I’m working with a demon.”

“I’m not sure they’re as bad as we think, I mean they are here, aren’t they?”

“Maybe the others aren’t, but he just gets under my skin.”

“Aye.”

“Well, soon enough this’ll all be over,” she told him.

“Yeah. Besides, I can’t wait to show them how strong we are,” he said, a little louder. He was smiling then, and smacked his flaming fist into his other hand.

“We’ll show them!”, Happy shouted a little too loud.

She laughed, “Yeah, we will.”

“We’re all fired up now!”

He yelled that time, and almost everyone looked at him. Lucy didn’t expect the other group to react, so she was surprised when most of them broke out into a smile. The smiles quickly faded from the Sins faces, while Lucy and her friends felt fired up.

They continued walking for a short while, Meliodas saying he knew Torror had to be somewhere close. They were going down a large hill when Lucy saw a circle appear around Meliodas. It didn’t so much appear as reveal itself— and suddenly he crashed into something. However, there was nothing there. And when she really looked at it, it wasn’t just a circle around him. It was script. 

“What the hell!”, he yelled, punching the air. His fist crashed into an invisible barrier.

Elizabeth ran up to him, but no barrier stopped her. She tried to pull him out, but it didn’t budge. She even stepped into it herself, but was able to walk back out.

“This is like one of Freed’s enchantments,” Erza stated.

“What is this?”, Elizabeth asked frantically. Lucy had never seen the normally composed group so angry and panicked.

“It’s like a magic our friend uses, so someone set up a trap with this magic. They have certain rules, and once they are written they can’t be broken,” Lucy said. She had been curious about it when she first learned about them, and always thought they’d be interesting.

“They take awhile to write, so whoever did it knew that you were coming,” Wendy said.

“I can break it,” Ban said, walking up to Meliodas. 

He outstretched his hand, and the other man took it. He started to pull, but unsurprisingly Meliodas didn’t move through the barrier. Instead, the ground beneath them cracked and they sank into the Earth. It was almost worrying, how much raw strength they both had. 

“Stop! The rules are absolute, nothing you do will destroy it,” Erza shouted above the loud cracking of the ground. They both stopped, and Meliodas punched it again. Whoever cast it must have been considerably strong to be able to keep it up against both of their strength. It wasn’t too much of a mystery of who set the trap.

“Who’s doing it?”, King asked, stepping inside of it himself before walking back out.

“If Torror was really here for around a hundred years, we should have expected him to have picked up some of Fiore’s magic,” Gray said.

Lucy almost didn’t notice Diane pull something out of her pocket. It was a small bottle, and she held it up towards King. Lucy saw him nod, and immediately Diane opened it and downed the entire thing. Elizabeth looked over, and clearly knew what was going on. With absolutely no warning, Diane grew about ten times in size. 

Lucy’s first instinct was to run away, because seeing someone she had become friends with suddenly become huge was absolutely terrifying. She did not want to be crushed. It seemed most of her guild mates had the same idea, but there was a battle in front of them. She felt herself scream, and heard Natsu do the same. 

“Don’t crush me!”, Happy screamed.

“Control yourself!”, Charle said, but she didn’t seem too sure of it herself. Lucy didn’t know if she was talking to Happy or Wendy, because the younger dragon slayer was frozen in place and just staring up at Diane. 

“Oh, sorry, I forgot that might surprise you all,” Diane said, smiling.

With those words, Lucy regained a little bit of her composure. It was still terrifying, but she was still the same person. It was probably offensive to react in such a crude way.

“You’re so big!”, Natsu yelled, because he never thought about his words before speaking.

“Don’t be rude!”, Lucy yelled at him.

“When will this wear off?”, Meliodas asked, and Lucy could practically see the anger rolling off of him. They clearly didn’t have something so restricting in their own country.

“Here, let me read it,” Lucy said as she stepped forward.

It took her a moment because she wasn’t the best at it, but once she got it she was actually glad they found out Meliodas was a demon the night before. Because if they hadn’t, their current situation would not have been a good place for that argument.

“It’s going to last for two hours, and it traps any demons who go into it,” she said warily. She heard Natsu mutter something.

Meliodas punched the wall for the third time, and suddenly his appearance changed. A black fog grew over his shoulders, and a dark mark appeared over his face. It was truly terrifying. Diane becoming large and going into her true form was nothing compared to the fear Lucy felt at seeing Meliodas look like that. That was not the time for fear however, so she pushed it away and gripped Loke’s key for the moment she needed to summon him. 

“Meliodas…” Elizabeth said quietly, looking at him. She didn’t look scared, just worried.

King looked at Ban, an unusual smirk on his face, “Make sure you aren’t drunk this time.”

That was odd, to say the least. The Sins were clearly not opposed to bantering with each other, so there was probably some past fight where he was drunk. Based on his personality, Lucy wouldn’t exactly be surprised. 

“No promises,” he said with a grin, even when they had no alcohol on hand. 

Lucy knew that Torror didn’t necessarily have to be nearby for the enchantment, but it wouldn’t make sense if he wasn’t. Based on everything she knew, when he set the enchantment to trap demons he probably did that to drink Meliodas’ blood and regenerate faster. So he had to be somewhere nearby, and they all had to be on guard. In one hundred years, he had time to learn multiple types of magic. It would be stupid to assume that he hadn’t.

And with that very eventful morning, before they even had time to get breakfast, their fight against Torror started.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> posting once at 6 p.m. and again at 12 a.m. means i didn't post twice in the same day... right? i know i should've waited, but i had a sudden burst of inspiration and usually post the moment i finish a chapter. i really like this chapter, and i hope you all did too!


	10. How Strange, Your Smile Makes Me Stronger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle starts, but not quite how any of the participants expected it to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> had to bump the chapter number up to 13 ;)

There was no one to fight. Not yet, at least.

They were just standing there, in the middle of a field. Anyone who walked by would be horribly confused. They were all tense, ready for battle. Lucy was expecting some pale vampire to walk out, but no one appeared. Meliodas was still standing in the enchantment, and Elizabeth was by his side. Her wings had appeared again, and the black fog around Meliodas was still there. 

Without warning, a pinkish block of metal came flying towards them. Lucy’s first instinct was that it was the vampire, but the Sins never said anything about him generating metal. She looked at the block now on the ground, and realized quickly that it was actually copper. They predicted the vampire to have learned multiple types of magic, but she couldn’t feel someone with strong magic power around. If this vampire was as powerful as they really said, then she should definitely feel it.

“It’s not him,” Meliodas announced from his trap. Based on the stance he was taking, he probably couldn’t use long range attacks. That meant that he was practically useless in their current fight. Or, at least until the enchantment wore off. 

Proving his statement, a woman who couldn’t have been over thirty jumped out. Another copper attack came, and Lucy could tell it was maker magic. Gray froze the attack, but no one made a move on her. When she jumped up, Lucy saw the guild mark on her leg. She was apart of Quatro Cerberus. So, then why was she attacking them? 

“Who is it then?”, Diane yelled out. 

The woman continued to fire off attacks, most of which Gray was taking care of. Meliodas didn't have much space to move, and Elizabeth clearly wasn’t best when it came to fighting offensively, so she didn’t make any attacks. Diane could step on the attacker if she liked, but she made no move to attack. King’s pillow had returned (Lucy made a mental note to ask where he keeps it) and Ban was holding some sort of weapon out defensively.

“Don’t attack, she’s a member of a nearby guild!”, Erza proclaimed, fending off one of the attacks.

Before anyone else could comment, two more people jumped out. They also fired off attacks at random, and Lucy knew they wouldn’t be able to stay on the defensive forever. She wondered what Natsu was doing, knowing him he should have attacked them by now. Not that she wanted him to do that, just that he normally lacked the common sense to think things through. She took her eyes off of the opponents in front of them and looked towards him. It almost took a moment for her to process that Natsu wasn’t there. Because Natsu wasn’t anywhere to be seen in their group, right when they were about to fight the vampire that they traveled all this way for.

“Where’s Natsu?”, Happy flew up to her and asked. 

“I have no idea,” she yelled at the cat, because he should know the answer. “Where’d he go?”

Before she could hear his response, a piece of copper flew into the cat and knocked him back. She swirled around just in time to dodge an attack coming her way. When she looked around, Gray had frozen all three attackers.

“What’s wrong with them?”, he asked.

“We should get them back to their guild hall,” Wendy said, hesitantly walking towards the blocks of ice.

“There’s no point. They’re already dead,” Meliodas announced from his trap.

He had said something about Torror being able to drink someone’s blood and control them, but that was not what Lucy expected. She hadn’t imagined he would actually need to. She walked towards the traps Gray had put them in, and much to her shock none of them looked particularly _alive_. Even hazy and tinged blue through the ice, it was clear that they weren’t alive and couldn’t have been for some time. Wendy shrieked, and Lucy backed up.

“Is there any way to save them?”, Erza asked respectively. It was horrible— these mage’s had probably just been on a job. Or worse, their entire guild hall could have been attacked. She pushed that thought away quickly, not wanting to think about what it could mean. She immediately found herself grateful for the Sins coming and alerting them about this. A vampire who went around killing and possessing innocent wizards was not someone she wanted in Fiore.

“No, they’re already dead. They were just being controlled,” he told them.

Lucy was still staring, horrified but unable to look away. She felt a hand on her shoulder and jumped, turning around quickly. It was Elizabeth, holding her hands out in innocence. Well, she managed to snap her out of whatever awful train of thought she was having. Lucy had to be thankful for that much. 

They all heard the large boom coming from the mountain to their north. When they looked over, they could see a bunch of fire. Or, to be more exact, they could feel it. Lucy expected to see Natsu helping them out and incapacitating whoever their enemy was. How did he know to go over there anyways? She didn’t spend too much time thinking about it, because when the smoke cleared enough there he was. He wasn’t helping them, however. He was running. Behind him had to be at least a dozen wizards, all with the same lazy expression on their face.

It was awful, the vampire had turned so many more than three people into his undead slaves. She almost wanted to cry at the sight of it, knowing how many people would probably grieve because of one vampire. They couldn’t even rest in peace, no, they were being forced to attack them now.

As Natsu got closer they could hear him yelling, and could almost make out the panicked expression on his face.

“What’s wrong with these guys?”, he screeched.

“They’re already dead!”, Diane yelled out to him.

“Huh?”, he yelled back, clueless as ever.

“They’re dead!”, the giant yelled, stepped forward. 

Lucy wasn’t sure what to say, but the wizards were definitely getting closer. There wasn't much that they could do, but she’d rather not deface their corpses. They would need to bring them back to their families at some point. Yet, they were attacking and Natsu’s magic was particularly destructive. Lucy had a feeling Diane had some sort of magic tricks up her sleeve, but all she could imagine the giant doing is stepping on the poor wizards. Ban could probably knock them out, she hadn’t seen any special magic attacks come from him.

She was broken out of her uncomfortable trance when someone yelled her name, she wasn’t even quite sure who. She did understand why they were yelling at her. There were multiple wizards coming up right behind her, ready to attack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> not a big fan of this chapter :/ i did have someone other than me read it before i posted it, so i hope there aren't any mistakes at least. i actually planned to include a little bit of shippy stuff this chapter but that didn't work out. i hope some of you enjoyed, and i would appreciate constructive criticism :)


	11. I Will Gather All the Light and Shine On Your Tomorrow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Sins and the Fairies finally learn to work together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i apologize for the wait, and for the deteriorating quality of this fic.

In the blink of an eye, Elizabeth was in front of her. Lucy hadn’t even known if she used magic, let alone how powerful it could be. Yet, suddenly, there was a bright light and all of the wizards attacks ceased completely. Almost immediately they fell to the ground. Lucy stood in silence for a second, taking a moment to mourn them. That moment was broken by the previously angry person trapped in the enchantment.

“Good job, Elizabeth,” he said with a smile on his face.

“Why’re you still stuck?”, Natsu asked as if Lucy hadn’t just read off the rules of the enchantment.

Before Meliodas could respond, Diane spoke up, “There’s gotta be more of them.”

“Most definitely,” Gowther said. Lucy almost forgot he was there, considering he had been completely helpless the entire battle. She wasn’t even sure what his magic was, either. She knew that he could manipulate their minds, but would that even work on the dead? She wasn’t sure.

“That was already so many,” Lucy said in disbelief.

Before she could speak again, more wizards ran out. This vampire was horrible. He couldn’t even show his face for a fight that was meant for him. Instead he was possessing innocent wizards, who most definitely died at his hand. Lucy almost felt sick, putting her hand over her mouth.

“That’s horrible,” she heard Wendy mumble behind her.

He deserved to pay for what he’d done, and considering how easily Elizabeth just took the previous wizards down, he would. Meliodas said that this particular vampire was more dangerous than other ones the Sins had faced, but that didn’t mean it would be tough for all of them to fight him. Lucy just had to hope that was true. Besides, based on everything she’d heard they had also taken down very difficult opponents and won. 

This time, before Elizabeth could use her magic, three huge cylindrical boulders thrust out of the ground. Happy had appeared beside Lucy at some point, and screamed. She screamed, too out of reflex. At first she thought the boulders came from one of the wizards, but when she focused on it most of the wizards were pushed up from the boulders. She looked around, trying to see who had made the deadly attack. It definitely hadn’t been one of her teammates, that was for sure. Finally, she looked up and saw Diane’s hand outstretched. None of the other Sins seemed fazed by this attack, as if it was normal. She had just done exactly what Lucy (and surely her friends, too) had been trying not to do. Which was deface the bodies of the dead.  
She hated it, but a couple that she had missed were still making their attacks. Some sort of vine snaked towards them, and wrapped itself around Ban. Lucy saw another one go towards Meliodas, who had been too busy looking for the vampire, to notice. If he wasn’t trapped then she wouldn’t have paid it any mind, but it didn’t make sense. If these possessed wizards truly had any other goal than to kill them, they wouldn’t go after him. If they were really thinking with common sense, then they’d know he wasn’t any threat from inside the trap. Or at least they’d think to go after the ones in the front lines. That meant that their goal was simply to kill them, with no actual sense on how to do it.

Another vine snaked over, and Lucy thought it was about to come for her, but instead it slid up Diane’s leg. She immediately took care of it, and when Lucy looked back over so had Meliodas and Ban. The latter jumped up and took the vine guy out in a rather brutal way. Lucy was glad she was blocking Wendy’s view, no one should have to see that. 

Gray froze two more of the attackers, and King sent his pillow (which was now shaped like a bear) flying towards two of them. She didn’t see what happened, but considering what she’d seen so far it was less than pleasant. 

“I’m willing to bet he’s over there,” Meliodas said, pointing at the mountain East of where they were standing. 

“Well how’re we supposed to get you there?”, Ban asked nonchalantly. 

He looked to her, obviously asking about the enchantment.

“You still have around two hours, not that much times has passed,” she told him. She didn’t expect a pleasant reaction.

He balled his hands into fists, and Elizabeth walked closer to him. He was not happy. His anger clearly wasn’t directed at Lucy, and he was staring at the mountain. 

“Some of us could go ahead, while the others stay here to lure the wizards out,” Erza said. She had a strong feeling Meliodas wouldn’t accept that.

“We don’t even know what lures them over,” Gray said exactly what she’d been thinking the whole time.

“For all we know they could just go to the closest wizard they see,” Diane said from above.

“No, if that was the case then they wouldn’t have sent a vine towards Meliodas,” Lucy said.

“That’s true. They most likely attack at random,” Gowther stated in that stoic voice of his.

“Ugh, that’s a pain,” Ban complained.

“Indeed,” Gowther unnecessarily responded.

“And I didn’t come this far to be stuck,” Meliodas said through gritted teeth.

“It does seem kinda unfair if Captain doesn’t even get to be in the fight,” Diane mumbled.

“Yeah, but we’re not waiting two hours,” Ban sternly told her. She muttered something inaudible.

“Elizabeth, can you do that thing from before? Where you took them all out harmlessly?”, Lucy asked.

“Yeah, that was really effective,” Gray said curiously.

“It takes a lot of magic power. I removed all of the darkness from them, and without that they were no longer possessed,” she explained. 

Her magic was amazing. It seemed very strong and abled, Lucy was sure she must’ve had so many more powerful spells up her sleeve. She wanted to ask about her, because if Meliodas was a demon and King was a fairy then who knows what Elizabeth was. Lucy was sure of one thing, however. That there was no way she was using spells like that and being human. If it was someone who wasn’t from Britannica and didn’t talk about the dozens of other mystical races then Lucy wouldn’t think twice about her being human. But, she was from Britannica, and there was no way she was human.

Lucy looked behind her at the unusually quiet member of the group. Natsu was staring at the ground, his face twisted up in an odd manner she wasn’t used to. Happy hadn’t been paying attention to him, but when he saw Lucy looking at the fire breather he turned around, too. The exceed almost looked concerned, Natsu being quiet was very uncharacteristic of him.

“Natsu?”, Happy asked, concern hinted in his voice.

“I’m thinking,” he said quietly.

Now, _that_ was weird. The Sins obviously didn’t share their shock, and Erza was smarter than to let it distract her. Wendy didn’t even seem to notice, discussing the situation with Diane. The giant had knelt down to be closer to her, and they were talking about the wizards. Lucy was too shocked to notice all of that, however. Her and Happy were staring at the pyro in a daze, watching his wrinkled face thinking hard. Gray was tempted to distract him, but didn’t want to ruin it on the off chance Natsu could actually come up with a good idea.

Finally, his head shot up to reveal the large smile on his face. Happy looked uncomfortably scared at whatever revelation his friend had just made. Lucy shared the sentiment.

“I got it!”, Natsu yelled as if whatever he thought up would cure all of their problems.

“Uh, what?”, asked Ban, who had seen the entire ordeal.

“You wanna hear my plan or not?”, Natsu unnecessarily, walking closer to the group. Elizabeth slowly nodded her head, and Erza raised her eyebrows at him. Gray was looking at his friend, unsure if he should be impressed or not.

“Okay, why don’t some of us lure him over here,” he said. She understood what he meant, but it was counterproductive. Some of them could go over, they didn’t necessarily need Meliodas. They were all capable of fighting him themselves, she was sure.

“That’s stupid,” Gray said in a much more rude manner than Lucy would have.

“Well I don’t see you coming up with anything better!”, Natsu asked, about to start a fight.

“It’s actually not that bad of a plan,” Meliodas quipped.

“You hit your head or somethin’?”, Ban asked him as if it was the craziest thing ever.

“It simply doesn’t make sense,” Gowther stated flatly.

“I think it does. Besides, I’d hate it if I came all the way to a fight just to get stuck and not be able to pound the guy,” Natsu said.

Lucy wasn’t sure when Natsu started thinking about Meliodas’ feelings, but it didn’t sound so bad when he said it that way. Gray seemed to consider it a little, and Ban, who had just rejected the idea, didn’t hate it as much anymore. Lucy almost felt proud of her friend for thinking of the guy he had been trying to fight since the moment he met him. 

It was clear Meliodas also liked the plan, if his wide smile was anything to go off of. Lucy still thought it was counterproductive, but if the two most strong willed people in the group liked it, then they would probably go with it. It was odd, normally Erza came up with the plans. Well, their entire journey with the Sins had been crazy. She should just expect the unexpected as long as they were still with their new friends.

“Let’s do it,” Meliodas said. Up until that part he hadn’t acted like the captain he claimed to be, but Lucy finally understood. Even if normally they all put in their opinions, when it came to impossible situations he could get them all on the same page. 

They spent the next thirty minutes quietly discussing their plan. It wasn’t the best, but it would work. Lucy ended up having to explain her magic in more detail, because apparently the point hadn’t gotten across the first time. When they first started trying to make a plan, Elizabeth suggested Lucy bringing out all of her spirits and having them do most of the work. That was a huge misconception on her part, which Lucy had to correct. That put them back at step zero. As they finally started making headway, she found out more about Gowther’s magic. It was both interesting and terrifying at the same time. He could easily use it on any of them, and they’d never know. She briefly wondered if he ever had used it on his teammates, but it wasn’t the time nor the place for that.

They split the group into two’s, but it wasn’t the groups they had been in the entire journey. They mixed up the Sins and Fairies, and when they finished the plan Lucy was sure it would work. Between all of their magic and power levels and the group they had going in to lure him out, there was no way it could fail.

Lucy, Gowther, Ban, Gray, and Erza were then standing on Diane’s shoulder, two of them much more used to it than the others. They were heading East, towards the large mountain that wizards had been coming from. And they were ready.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i really am sorry for the wait, i had absolutely no inspiration for this fic the past week. i still don't exactly, so that's why this chapter isn't the best. there's so many characters and i keep forgetting them, so it discourages me from writing. but i'm back! and i'll try to take less than a week to get chapters up from here on out. we are almost done, after all ;)
> 
> actual conversation i had with my friend while writing this:
> 
> "(gasp) i found a new word to describe ban with!"
> 
> "lanky."


	12. Let's See This Rainbow Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Six of the fairies and sins head to find the long awaited vampire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is around 3,500 words, so i hope you all enjoy!

Riding on Diane’s shoulder was nothing short of terrifying. Lucy was holding onto Gowther like a lifeline, but he was just standing there unbothered. If Erza was scared, she definitely didn’t show it. Gray had sat down, clearly not enjoying their ride on a giant. She couldn’t blame him, considering that when Diane told them to ‘hop on’ she practically fell over. 

It didn’t take long for them to get to the mountain that Torror was supposedly at. It looked so far away when Lucy expected to have to walk there, but Diane could get there easily thanks to her size. Lucy hadn’t been too scared of the giant girl, but any residing fear within her was definitely eliminated now. Her magic— or whatever it was, was amazing. Lucy couldn’t imagine the strength that must come with her size, and she also has magical powers to push rock out of the ground? That was really something. Lucy could only think of all the situations that must have come in handy when they were in Liones.

They finally got to the mountain side, and Lucy could sense the magical power from inside. She could only feel one very strong wizard, so she assumed that was Torror. She wanted to hope he was alone and hadn’t killed and possessed anyone else, but the chances of that were slim. With all of them having strong magic, it was no doubt he had already sensed them coming. 

Diane took a step forward, kneeling to set them down. Lucy cracked a smile when she saw the cautious way Erza was stepping into Diane’s hand and then onto the ground, because it proved she had also been put off by their ride on a giant. 

“Excuse me, may you stop holding onto me now?”, Lucy heard someone ask. It took her a moment to realize it was Gowther, and she was still clinging onto him as if her life depended on it. 

“Oh, right,” she laughed, embarrassed. She let go of him, but was still uneasy standing on Diane’s shoulder. So when Diane reached her hand up and let them hop on, she jumped at the chance to get back on solid ground. Being back on the ground again made her feel much, much better.

Diane stood back up, towering over them. Ban stretched a little, as if whatever lay inside of this mountain would be the easiest fight of his life. Gowther was just looking at the steep, grassy hill. Lucy would never be able to figure out what was going on inside of his head. Yet, he could read whatever she was thinking at any moment. It was a slight reminder that they still didn’t know the Sins that well, and she walked closer to Gray and Erza.

“There’s probably more wizards in there,” Gray said, loud enough for everyone to hear.

“How’re we supposed to get in?”, Ban lazily asked.

“I’ll deal with that,” Diane said, raising her fist in preparation to punch the steep hill. 

The entire ground shook, and Lucy had to hope that she hadn’t caved the entire mountain in on the wizards. Dead or not, they didn’t deserve that. She heard Diane yelp, so it must’ve been some punch. Lucy expected more of a crash than the quiet thud, but she didn’t know much about Diane’s strength. She looked back up, hoping that no dust would get in her eyes. 

Lucy was more than surprised to see that no dust was surrounding them, and there was no dent in the hill. Moreover, the only damage seemed to be the ground, which had sunk down much like it had when Ban unsuccessfully tried to pull Meliodas out of the enchantment. She looked up to Diane, who was holding her hand in pain as if she had hit something. The problem was that she hadn’t hit anything.

“Uh, what just happened?”, Ban asked. 

Lucy hardly heard his question, however. She was too busy looking down at the circle of script that surrounded Diane. Her eyes widened, and she pointed to it.

“Hm, that looks like the barrier that surrounded the captain,” Gowther said before Lucy could get the words out.

Diane looked down at it in shock, and tried to take a step forward. She was met with an invisible wall, one that they had all become far too familiar with in the past hour. The enchantment meant that Torror knew they were coming. It also meant they lost their powerhouse, whom their plan largely relied on. 

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Gray said. 

“No! I can’t be in a trap _too_! This isn’t fair,” Diane shouted, slamming her fists against the invisible barrier.

“Lucy, can you read the enchantment?”, Erza asked as she stepped forward.

“Let me see,” the blonde mage said as she stepped forward. It took her a moment to read it, but she managed.

“If a giant or fairy steps into the barrier, they’ll get trapped for the next hour.”

Everyone groaned at their new problem. It would definitely be a hindrance considering they all played a large part in the plan.  
“He knew we were coming,” Lucy said aloud.

Diane smacked the barrier again.

“In that case he could have also set enchantments to catch us,” Gray told the rest of the group, considering that they still didn’t really know anything about the enchantments.

“Yes, but, these have to be taking a good bit of magic power,” Erza cut in.

“Especially with the amount of force we’ve all used against the barriers, that would put a lot of strain on him,” Lucy said.

“So will he set other traps or not?”, Ban asked.

“We can only assume so, and all of us are human so all it would take is one enchantment to trap us all,” Erza said what all of them were presumably thinking.

None of the Fairies noticed the look that passed between Gowther, Ban, and Diane. They were too busy weighing their options on what to do. Gowther discreetly shook his head at Ban and Diane, careful not to catch the eye of the fairies. Lucy finally noticed the other three’s silence and turned towards them.

“We don’t know where he is or who he could have listening to our conversation right now,” Gowther met Lucy’s eyes, but they were unreadable. She felt a sliver of doubt creep into her gut, there was something the Sins weren’t telling them. She tried to mentally backtrack the conversation to figure out what caused a change, but couldn’t pinpoint anything specific. She couldn’t dwell on it however, because Gowther was right. Anyone could be listening, so it wouldn’t be smart to reveal their plans out loud anymore. 

“You guys should split up,” Diane said. If anyone was listening, they probably had enough common sense to figure out they would do that. They just had to be careful with their words, and make sure not to reveal the key element of their plan.

“I doubt there’ll be too many enchantments set up, he’ll probably won’t want to use up all of his magic power on them,” Erza said, not bothering to be discreet. Lucy wasn’t surprised that she announced her assumptions, it wasn’t like he would suddenly use up all of his magic power after hearing that. All of them seemed to be on the same page, finally.

“Diane, could you still make an entry for us?”, Gowther asked. Lucy wasn’t sure how she was supposed to do that, but he knew a lot more about the giant than Lucy did.

“I guess,” she mumbled. She was more bummed out than angry about being trapped, but she was upset nonetheless. 

Lucy clung to Gowther once again in fear when one of those large cylindrical boulders came flying out of the ground. It was angled this time, and as it rose up it slammed into the mountain. Lucy stared up in awe, her eyes stinging from the dust that now lingered in the air. It took a moment, but Diane waved her arm in the limited space and the dust began to clear. It still lingered, but Lucy and the others could now see that when the rock crashed into the mountain it caved in part of it, also putting a hole in the walls of Torror’s base.

Diane was now sitting down, plucking some grass up. Before anyone could say anything, multiple wizards came swarming out like flies. Gray froze one of them, but instantly his ice melted. Before Lucy could see what he did to combat this problem, a wizard jumped at her. She also used some sort of ground or nature magic, like the one from earlier that had controlled the vines. This time, the ground swelled and plants were thrown towards her.

She opened the satchel on her hip that contains her keys, and pulled out one of her physically strongest ones. She aimed the key towards the opponent, and Taurus, the golden bull and one of her zodiac keys was summoned. The wizards lifeless expression didn’t change in reaction to him at all, she only continued her repeated attacks. Taurus took note of it, and charged forward.

“Taurus, she’s already dead so you just have to immobilize her!”, Lucy yelled to her spirit. He said something in reply, but it was drowned out by the fights surrounding her.

It seemed Gowther had assisted Gray when the opponents he fought were able to melt his ice. Erza and Ban had each taken on opponents on their own, but they could handle it. Lucy looked back to her spirit and smiled, seeing how he took care of the poor woman and also another wizard who was about to attack Lucy.

“Thanks Taurus,” she told him, brushing off one of his many never-ending perverted comments. She sent him back to the celestial spirit world, and it appeared that the others had also finished their fights.

The five of them walked hesitantly into the unstable rubble, choosing their steps wisely so that they didn’t accidentally collapse more of the mountain. It only seemed to be a small part Torror had hollowed out, and Lucy was guessing it was more towards one side of the mountain. There was no reason for him to need any more space than that, unless there was something else they didn’t know about.

On their way in they were assaulted by a couple more wizards, but it was nothing they couldn’t handle. They finally made it past the part that had been collapsed and didn’t have to be careful for every step they took. Erza stepped away from them slightly, reaching her arms around her very non-discreetly. It took a moment for Lucy to realize it, but she was checking to make sure that she hadn’t been caught in an enchantment. Lucy had momentarily forgotten about those in the midst of their battles, but that was a mistake she couldn’t make again. It would be costly if they lost another member of their already small group. The others were waiting.

“We should split up,” Erza predictably said, considering her actions to check for any enchantments she could have been caught in. 

They all agreed, and went off separate ways. Lucy didn’t exactly want to be alone in a place as dark and cold as the one they’d currently been in, but she knew she had no other choice. She was walking down a hallway that looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in a hundred years when she heard a thud beside her. She sharply turned, placing her hand on the satchel holding her keys.

Yet, it was no wizard behind her. It was only Gowther, two of his fingers to the side of his forehead in some sort of pose. Lucy brushed it off, because there were more important things. Such as why was he there when they were supposed to have split up?

“Gowther, we were supposed to split up,” Lucy voiced her concerns as if he was a child.

“There is no harm in me being near any of you, and you seemed like the most logical choice because of our plan,” he said.

“No harm? If we both get caught in an enchantment then the entire plan is screwed!”, she yelled—probably far too loud considering they were supposed to be _sneaking_ through the halls.

“That does not matter,” he said and continued walking ahead of her.

“Of course it matters!”, she said, annoyed.

“You shouldn’t yell like that, it’ll alert everyone we’re here,” he told her. 

Lucy wanted to continue telling him to leave, but instead she just walked a fair distance behind him. Considering the thin hallway the enchantment probably wouldn’t be too large if there was one, so there hopefully wasn’t any harm in just walking behind him. She kept their distance and consistently reached her arm out in front of her incase she was about to walk into one of the traps.

She definitely underestimated the size of the place. She was very wrong when she thought it was small, and she could’ve sworn the hall was angled so they were walking downwards. They were probably underground at that point. They kept walking forward, however. Towards the source of the very powerful magic power. 

Lucy was confident there was a hallway parallel to the one they were walking in, just a couple of walls over. If they were going at the same pace as whichever of their friends went into that one then they might arrive at the same time whenever it does break off into a room. That could either be a very good thing or a very bad thing, when she thought of the enchantments.

Those were really the bane of their entire plan.

Finally, the hallway broke off into a room. It was no bigger than her apartment back in Magnolia, but it wasn’t too small for her to still keep her distance. Lucy walked around the room, stepping into every inch of it. Gowther simply stood and watched her, as if it was fascinating to watch to scour the room for any hidden enchantments. There were three doors, two next to each other and one across the room. She had a feeling Torror was beyond the single door. She was still walking around when Gray appeared from the door next to the one they came out of in. He immediately began to retreat, not wanting to get stuck.

“I checked, and there’s no enchantment in here,” Lucy told him.

“Oh, that’s good,” he said and walked into the room, “Uh, I thought we split up? How is Gowther here?”

“He decided not to split up and just follow me, putting everything at risk,” Lucy complained. Was he not able to follow simple instructions? 

“Why?”, Gray asked Gowther himself.

“Everything turned out alright, didn’t it?”, he said stoically. 

Gray continued to point out how flawed Gowther’s logic is, but Lucy tuned him out. Even if what he did was stupid, it was over now. At that moment they were fine, and finally getting back on track.

“Should we go through that door?”, Lucy asked, breaking them out of their arguments.

They both looked at it. It looked just like the other ones, but it wasn’t exactly appealing. Whoever was behind that door was probably not their friend, and they’d been lucky so far not to run into any more wizards. If they were going off of what Gray had said earlier about there being more wizards inside, then they should expect some to be beyond that door. The three of them were more than capable of dealing with possessed wizards, and with their plan they should be able to take care of Torror. They had the key element of it with them already, so if he was behind that door they would be prepared.

Lucy and Gray looked at each other, making eye contact. Before they knew it, Gowther was waltzing his way over and opening the door. The two mages eyes widened, not expecting him to do that. Lucy already told herself to expect the unexpected, so this shouldn’t come as any surprise. She winced when he opened the door, expecting some sort of attack. There was nothing, just another hallway. This one was wider than the previous ones, so it wouldn’t be as difficult to keep a fair distance between each other. They couldn’t forget to be cautious just because Gowther just kept getting weirder and weirder.

The hallway was also shorter, leading to a wide opening. There was no door, and it looked like a completely different structure. There was patterned wallpaper in the room in front of them, and the doorframe was nicely decorated. They walked in hesitantly, looking around for a place to hide if their plan was successful. 

They all walked completely into the room, but completely froze when they saw the pale man sitting at the couch in the corner of the room. 

“Hello. I expected the other sins instead of Fiore’s wizards,” he said in an uncomfortably pleasant voice. 

Lucy knew that there was an enchantment on the ground in front of them. It would only actually reveal itself if one of them got caught in it, but based on the placement of the previous ones it would only make sense. She put her arm out in front of Gray before he could walk right into it. The man, who based on how powerful his magic felt, was definitely Torror. He noticed the brief gesture of her arm and squinted slightly. 

How could they put their plan into action if an enchantment blocked them from getting close to him, Lucy began to fret. Were they about to become dead servants? How did he use his power? That was probably something they should have asked, but now it was too late. She didn’t have time to mentally ask herself any more worried questions because Gowther walked forward, right into supposed enchantment.

“Gowther-“, she started to panic but was cut off.

“I recommend finding a hiding spot that doesn’t involve getting trapped,” he commanded, going off of their plan. 

He not only confirmed the presence of an enchantment, but walked right into it. Before she could continue staring Gray said something and pulled her behind one of the couches next to the door. They both hid, making sure Torror wouldn’t be able to see them once Gowther used his magic. 

There was a bit of a tussle, before they heard someone stand up.. She strained her neck to see who was walking out, and sure enough, it was Torror. The plan worked. It worked rather well, once they got in. They hadn’t encountered any wizards, and somehow Gowther didn’t get caught in the enchantment. She wondered for a moment if he had, but once Torror was out the door and down the hallway she peeked out. There he was, standing in front of the couch.

“Done,” he said, “He now thinks that his home is in the West mountain, meaning he will go over there and intercept with the Captain and others.”

Her and Gray slipped out from behind the couch and looked at the undisturbed room. They stayed near the doorway, so as not to get caught in the enchantment. 

“That’s great, but I gotta ask, how didn’t you get caught in the enchantment man?”, Gray asked the pink haired man. 

“Because I am not human,” he said without missing a beat.

Oh. Lucy supposed that made sense, but it would’ve been nice to know. What in the world _was_ he?

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

“What are you then?”

Both her and Gray shouted their questions, but Gowther didn’t reply.

“Two of us should follow him and the other can stay behind to tell the others,” was all he said. They would get their questions answered at some point, but it wasn’t the time or place. They had more important things to deal with.

“Fine, I’ll stay and tell them,” Gray volunteered. They already knew that Gowther would be one of the people following him, so from there whoever went with him didn’t matter as long as they could be discreet. Lucy looked at Gray, but he just nodded.

“Alright, me and Ms. Lucy will follow behind him,” he said and began to walk out.

“See you out there,” she said to Gray as her and Gowther walked into the hallway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ah, after 11 chapters torror finally makes an appearance. we're in the endgame now, with only 2 chapters left ;(


	13. As Fate Is Linking Your Heart With Mine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The two very different groups of people are able to work together when the real fight finally starts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> only one chapter left after this one ;(. i hope you all enjoy this chapter, and it's the longest one so far at 4,600 words.

Following Torror wasn’t too hard, as long as they didn’t make a sound. Lucy wasn’t sure how Gowther could have put such an intricate lie as to why he was in the collapsed building, but she really needed to stop questioning them. Her head was going to light on fire if she continued trying to piece apart every new thing she learned about them. 

A couple of times Lucy would bump into something, or Gowther would talk just a little too loud and they’d have to stay back another minute or so. They were absolutely screwed if he saw them and Gowther’s magic was undone, because he said he wouldn’t be able to get close enough if he was hostile. As far as Lucy knew, he wasn’t able to fight very well. 

When they were getting close to the way they came in, Torror turned another direction that Lucy didn’t even know was in there. The ‘base’ was much bigger than she originally estimated. It was good that he didn’t go in the way they came however, because if they did then he would run right into Diane. Seeing one of the sins would definitely undo Gowther’s magic. According to what Gowther said, then anything that didn’t fit quite right into the story in Torror’s head would erase the false memories and he’d realize he was walking right into a trap. 

Gowther’s magic was terrifying. Lucy had never heard of magic that could alter memories before they encountered him, and if he could change the mind of Torror, someone who set the enchantments and was clearly a genius, then Gowther was more powerful than she thought. Of course she knew him and the Sins were powerful, but the further they got into the plan the more it was reiterated. It left her wondering if somehow he had used it on her. It wasn’t something she wanted to consider, she almost completely trusted him, but he could so easily change any of their memories. Depending on how powerful he was, then he could probably brainwash entire towns. 

Lucy tried to push those thoughts out of her mind, it wasn’t the time for them. She had a lot more important things to focus on, like making sure they didn’t alert Torror of their presence. As far as she was aware, his senses weren’t heightened or anything. None of the new races that they had been introduced to seemed to have heightened senses. Diane was unquestionably strong, strong enough to punch holes into the side of a mountain. King could fly and had wings, but it clearly didn’t affect his senses. Meliodas had some sort of darkness in him, based on the markings that appeared on him and the wings of darkness he could grow. Elizabeth could retract and grow her wings at will, and had extremely powerful magic that could eliminate darkness. Ban appeared to be human. That left Gowther, who Lucy was still very confused about. He never told her or Gray what he was, but it obviously wasn’t human. She couldn’t think of any other storybook races that looked like humans.

Lucy was broken out of her thoughts when Gowther stopped walking. She looked at him, then listened for Torror’s footsteps. They were still there, so nothing should’ve stopped Gowther from moving.

“How much time has passed?”, he asked.

She furrowed her brows at him, confused. She wasn’t sure why that mattered, and they were about to get outside anyways. It surely couldn’t have been over an hour that they were in the cave.

“Why?”, she asked instead of answering the question.

“The enchantment on Diane only lasted an hour,” he answered her.

Oh. That made a lot of sense. Lucy berated herself for forgetting one of the most dire parts of the entire situation. It briefly reminded her that for all they knew there could be one in the halls, and it still wasn’t wise to walk so close to each other. Especially if Torror knew what race Gowther could be, he could have set an enchantment trap for a human and whatever he was. The vampire didn’t know anyone else was with the Sins until he saw her and Gray, but he didn’t pay them much mind. He didn’t give any of them that much attention, acting like a minor rival instead of someone who was trying to kill them. He probably thought that they had no idea about the enchantments, which would mean he didn’t know Gowther wasn’t human. That was good.

She looked around, retracing their steps to try to estimate how much time had passed.

“Probably 45 minutes,” she suggested. 

“So by the time we get out and back over to Meliodas and the others, Diane should be free,” he said mostly to himself.

“Hopefully,” she said.

By the time they finally got outside, they found out they’d been wrong. It had definitely been an hour already, based on the setting of the sun. It was already hours past noon when they went in, but a considerable amount of time still passed while they were inside of the mountain. Natsu must’ve been bored out fo his mind. 

Meliodas’ enchantment was probably going to be done sometime soon. Maybe they’d get lucky and it would even be released once they got over there. That would surely make things easier.

Walking into the open field was risky. They stayed at the mountain for a good chunk of time, not wanting to be seen if they walked right out. Hopefully the others weren’t where they could be seen. They were lucky Meliodas’ enchantment was where it was, because it was right on a small hill, positioned in a spot that it was difficult to see from the mountain. Once Torror got closer he would probably see them, and Gowther’s magic would be undone.

Luckily, they planned for that. Once he got close enough to see them, but before he had the chance to, Wendy and King would attack him. He would be momentarily thrown off because of Gowther’s magic only just wearing off, and they would be able to push him back. By pushing him back, he could get to Meliodas. It helped that Wendy would be able to ‘fly’, with Carla’s help of course. So they could easily get to the correct side of Torror that they’d be able to propel him back. Between Wendy’s sky dragon roar’s and King’s weird pillow (that Lucy couldn’t remember for the life of her what it was called), they made a good team when it came to defense. They should be able to push him back no problem, unless of course there was some other type of magic he could have learned.

That was another thing they had to worry about. For all they could’ve known he learned a dozen more types of magic. In all the years he was in Fiore, there was plenty of time for him to learn as many types of magic as he wanted. Enchantments were difficult and you had to be smart enough to understand them, but it still wouldn’t take years. He had enough time to learn other magic, so they had to expect it. He probably learned some type of offensive magic to match with the defensive nature of the enchantments. If Levy was there she probably could’ve even rewritten them, but she wasn’t and Lucy didn’t have the time to do that. Elizabeth could likely counteract some of his abilities, if they were centered around darkness. Which, according to her, if he was acting off of dark intentions then he could. Until they learned what types of magic he had, she would have to stay hidden. 

Having Wendy and King as the ones to first encounter him was also smart when they considered him learning other types of magic. They were both good at defense, but could still hold a fight on their own. Lucy didn’t know much about King, but Wendy was definitely strong enough to handle whatever Torror threw at her. They would be fine. 

Once they pushed him back, Meliodas could take care of him. Natsu would help, because him and Meliodas agreed that he should get to fight Torror with him. It didn’t make sense to everyone else, but those two said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. They still didn’t seem to like each other, but they thought in the same simple ways when it came to a fight. In their minds, it was all fair as long as they both got to fight. Maybe with that mindset they could actually become friends.

Gowther and Lucy were just about to leave the mountain and go out into the open field, when a certain blue cat came flying over. Lucy looked up, shocked. The blue cat wasn’t a necessity in their plan, more in it to help Natsu or assist him if he needed to back away. Considering that Natsu’s part of the plan was the final step, for when everybody else had done their job and he planned to just wing it with Meliodas as they beat Torror, it made sense that the cat didn’t have much place in it. Technically, neither did Natsu. 

“Happy!”, Lucy yelled, making sure not to be too loud.

“Lucy!”, he yelled much louder than he should’ve.

Her and Gowther both shushed the cat, and he finally understood.

“We’re so bored,” he complained.

Lucy deadpanned at the exceed. Before she could get a word out, however, Gowther started laughing. She hadn’t heard him laugh before. Her and Happy both stared at him, dumbfounded. It was only a small chuckle, but it was more than they even thought him capable of.

“Sir Happy, you really remind me of the Captain of Scraps,” he said.

“Who is that, by the way? You keep mentioning him,” Lucy asked almost immediately.

Gowther’s face lit up, “He was an old friend of our’s. He was a talking pig,”

A talking pig?

“Who could transform into a pig with wings quite often.”

The ‘Captain of Scraps’ that Gowther was nonstop talking about how much he missed and wished that he was there… was a talking and flying pig? At that point Lucy knew that she should really just expect these things, but it didn’t stop her jaw from dropping open. Happy probably reacted the same, but the conversation was short lived.

Gowther’s head snapped up, looking at Torror. When Lucy looked at him, she could see that he was almost over the hill. Once he got close enough, King and Wendy would attack him. The entire plan hinged on that moment— so it had to go right. 

“Happy!”, Lucy yelled, more comfortable with speaking at a reasonable tone.

“Aye!”, he yelled back.

“How much time passed from the moment we entered the mountain to now?”, she asked him. 

He looked confused for a moment, but finally answered, “I dunno, an hour an a half?”

“Good! We need to get to Diane,” Lucy yelled back at the cat.

Gowther clearly understood what she was getting at. Diane knew that she couldn’t leave the spot the enchantment was in even if it came undone, because if Torror was just then leaving and he saw her then she would’ve messed it up. Once they reached her and made sure the enchantment was no longer affecting her, she could bring them back over to the other’s quickly. They’d just have to make sure Torror had already seen Wendy and King. Happy didn’t understand, but still followed them as they ran over to the destruction that was once the side of a mountain.

They weren’t surprised to see that Diane was still there, but they were surprised to see her literally asleep. Lucy supposed it was a good way to pass the time, but it was rather unconventional given their circumstances. She could only imagine how bored Elizabeth was, even more secluded than Diane and waiting for the right moment to make a move. The three immediately ran over, Happy and Lucy shouting her name. She woke up slowly, clearly out of it. After she blinked a couple of times and sat up, she blankly stared at them for about half of a second. Then, she stood up quickly.

“Did it work?”, she shouted at them far too loud for comfort. They all shushed her, just as they did Happy.

“So far it has. He is currently walking over to where King and Wendy are,” Gowther told her.

She sighed in relief, before offering them both a hand to stand on. Lucy wasn’t fond at the idea of riding on the giant girl again, but it was alright. She was fine, and Diane surely wouldn’t let her fall. However, before she could step into Diane’s palm, a certain exceed grabbed onto her shirt and lifted her into the air. Now it was Lucy’s turn to sigh in relief, thankful for Happy. 

“Where are the others?”, Diane asked.

“They’re inside, looking for any possessed wizards. Gray should have told them that we already found Torror,” this time it was Lucy to report the information back to her. She hoped they didn’t find any more wizards, both out of sympathy for the lives lost and tiredness. It had been a long day, and for the sake of her friends she hoped they could be spared another fight. 

“Got it. Do we need to wait?”, Diane asked politely. From where he held Lucy, Happy sighed exasperatedly.

“No, everyone else might need help depending on how many types of magic Torror’s learned,” she told her.

Lucy hoped that between Natsu, Wendy, Meliodas, and King they could take on Torror themselves. They were all capable, but she wasn’t sure where his strength level lied. She could feel how strong he was when they encountered him, but if she relied on that factor to process how strong he was then she was sure Natsu himself could handle Torror. Meliodas made him seem much stronger than that, so she was sure the vampire they’d been hunting down was more powerful than she could feel. Besides, if the Sins and anyone else from Britannia had magic that different than their own then they might not feel it the same way. She had to concentrate to feel Gowther’s magic, but it was very powerful. If she went off of instinct alone then she’d highly underestimate him, so she couldn’t do the same thing for Torror.

Gowther was already on the giant girl’s shoulder, and they were ready to go. It was difficult for Diane to be discreet, but they stayed against the mountain as they made their way to the area Lucy and Gowther had just been in. 

When they got over, they stopped trying to be discreet. Wendy and King were facing Torror, their backs to Lucy and the others. If they were able to push him back, he would walk right into their trap. As they got closer, they could see the stance Torror took. He clearly had something up his sleeve, but before he could get the chance to unveil it, Wendy and King made their move.

Wendy sent a powerful gust of wind towards him, and once he was about to counteract that, King sent his pillow towards the vampire. Lucy couldn’t quite make out Torror’s facial expression, but it must’ve been surprised because he was clearly caught off guard. When it didn’t knock him back enough, Wendy sent a second gust of wind at him, using a dragon slayer roar. Lucy watched as he was pushed down the hill, right towards Natsu and Meliodas.

Another large part of their plan hinged on the fact that he didn’t know Team Natsu. He probably didn’t even know they were coming, or even if he did, he didn’t know who they were. He wouldn’t know their magic and strategies, while he would have some sort of idea about the Sins and what moves they would make. When Wendy used her sky dragon slayer magic to finally get him down the hill, it’s because he didn’t know she was capable of that. Especially for such a small girl, Lucy smiled knowing that he probably underestimated her.

They got closer, but not right into the battle. Meliodas made it clear plenty of times that this was his and the Sins fight, so even now after he agreed to share it with Natsu, Lucy didn’t want to get in the way. In a way, she understood how he felt. More so from when she tried to understand what Natsu meant, but it was all the same. He didn’t seem to mind whenever Elizabeth would come and intervene, but Lucy supposed that was what came with being lovers.

As Happy flew Lucy onto the hill top, next to where Carla was holding Wendy, Lucy could see Torror. She could also see Natsu and Meliodas, both ready to fight him. Meliodas was standing at the edge of the enchantment, his arm smushed against an invisible barrier. She had no idea why he would do that, all she could think was that it would hinder his already _very_ limited space to move in the trap. His attacks would have to be from a distance, but it was very clear he didn’t specialize in fighting that way. He was more like Erza (in fighting style, definitely not personality), because he seemed to prefer getting close and using a sword. Once Lucy got a closer look, she could see that he actually was using a sword. It was small, and she wondered what he planned to do. It was the one that was on his back before. He obviously had some sort of trick up his sleeve. It also helped that the enchantment must’ve been almost up, she was amazed that it was even still lasting.

“Meliodas,” Torror snarled.

“Yo,” was all the cheeky blonde man said.

Torror looked absolutely murderous, staring at Meliodas like he was the most evil being in the world. It was a far cry from the man earlier, who had his guard so low Gowther could easily use his magic to affect him.

“You had your _Sin_ mess with my mind.”

“That part wasn’t my idea, actually.”

Torror was practically breathing fire. If the Sins hadn’t made it clear that they knew his natural magic abilities were, Lucy would think he actually was. She wondered if Meliodas knew how mad he made his opponents, or if he was just speaking off of the top of his head. 

“You _demon_ ,” Torror spat to Meliodas. It didn’t seem to hit a nerve, because he just continued to look at the vampire blankly. Torror said the word ‘demon’ with such venom that Lucy could only guess there was some history behind it.

“I dunno how you escaped us all those years ago, but you won’t escape this time,” Meliodas said in a much more serious manner.

“You killed my entire race, and you will pay.”

“Not all of them,” Meliodas said, smiling far wider than he had been momentarily. 

That was awfully mysterious, but before Lucy had time to ponder it, Meliodas held his sword in front of him. He was completely pressed up against the invisible enchantment, and she could only wonder what he was doing. 

Almost instantly, there was a blur and suddenly there were two of him. One of him was inside the barrier, and the other was standing outside of it. Both of them were holding his sword. Natsu’s jaw dropped wide open from where he stood, having been silent just moments ago.

“There’s two of you!”, he shouted.

“What about it?” both Meliodas’ said with that smile on their face.

“How-“

“Aerial shot!”, Torror suddenly yelled out.

“Full counter!”, the second Meliodas yelled the moment Torror’s attack could start moving towards him.

Torror revealed what magic he used, and that it wasn’t anything too powerful. That is, if that was all he had learned. It was likely he learned more than just air magic, which was feeble. With Wendy’s sky dragon slayer magic, she could easily throw off all of his attacks. Meliodas had his full counter anyways, which propelled the attack back at the attacker. Lucy still didn’t understand how he created a clone of himself, but it wasn’t stuck in the enchantment. 

“Isn’t this place’s magic so cool?”, Meliodas said to him.

Without missing a beat, Natsu jumped up and attacked Torror. Meliodas’ twin did the same thing, both of them surely about to get a hit on him. When the area cleared however, there was a faint bubble around both of them. Air magic could also trap it’s opponents. Meliodas’ twin didn’t look happy to be in another trap, but it was nothing like the enchantment. He figured that out when he almost immediately broke it. The ground didn’t break as drastically as it had previously, Lucy noted. It was almost like he was less powerful, unless he was holding back. Natsu also blew apart the bubble, using his fire. The air didn’t stand a chance under both of their powerful magics. 

Someone else seemed to take this as an opportunity to come out, because it looked like Torror was about to do something else. It wasn’t the stance he took before when he was about to use Fiore’s magic, so Lucy had a feeling it had something to do with his own powers. She noticed King, Diane, and Gowther all react as if to stop what he was about to do.

Elizabeth was now in front of Torror, with Meliodas and Natsu on either side of her. Natsu startled at the sight of her, unable to keep himself composed for more than two minutes at a time. 

“I knew there was a repulsive _goddess_ somewhere around here,” Torror said ‘goddess’ with such disgust it shocked Lucy.

Wait… goddess? There was no way Elizabeth was a literal goddess. That was too much, even based off of all that they had heard of Britannia so far. Sure, she had large white angel wings coming out of her back and her magic was based around purifying darkness, but there was no way she was a goddess. That was a new level of crazy. Lucy didn’t even want to try to process that.

Instead of responding like one of the boys behind her would’ve, Elizabeth put her hands out in front of her. Lucy had to squint to continue watching, due to the bright white light that appeared around Torror’s arms. Lucy could clearly see his face, and he was struggling to move his arms. 

In his frustration and anger towards whatever Elizabeth did, he lost his focus on Meliodas and Natsu. The fire dragon slayer jumped up into the air behind Torror. He had a crazy grin on his face, and Lucy knew he was going to do something ridiculous. His eyes were carefully trained on Meliodas, and he took a large breath.

“Fire dragon… roar!”, he yelled.

Instead of pointing his attack at the obvious opponent, he aimed it at Meliodas. Lucy gasped, irrationally mistaking his strategy for wanting to actually attack the demon. She immediately realized her mistake in thinking that, because Meliodas grinned right back at him. She saw a blur, and the original Meliodas was suddenly jumping out of the enchantment. The time must have finally been up. He merged with the other Meliodas and held up his sword. Right when Natsu’s fire was about to hit him full force, he swung the sword into it. It wasn’t aimed back at Natsu, however. 

“Full counter!”, he yelled just as loud as Natsu had. 

The attack went flying into Torror, who’s hands were still stuck in the bright white light that came from Elizabeth. The fire seemed even stronger than it had been when Natsu sent it towards him. Torror went flying back, and Lucy knew that they had won. There was no way he could survive that, regenerating abilities or not. The attack tore through the ground as it just kept going. A large crater was left in it’s wake.

Happy flew into the air a little bit, grabbing Lucy again. Carla did the same thing with Wendy, hovering right beside them. Diane and Gowther had backed up, not wanting to fall into the crater. King was still flying in the air beside them. She saw Meliodas leap into the air and grab Elizabeth before she could get blown away, even if Lucy was sure the supposed goddess could’ve handled herself. Natsu had to jump out of the way of the new, stronger attack to avoid being hit by his own magic. He was standing on the other side of the crater, next to Erza, Gray, and Ban.

They had all watched the end of the battle, and seen how Torror’s reign of terror came to an end. It made Lucy feel better, knowing that he could no longer hurt the guilds and possess poor, unsuspecting wizards. As she looked at the destruction they had caused, she saw Natsu, staring up and smiling at her and Happy. She smiled right back, thankful that they were all okay and unharmed for the most part. 

Elizabeth ran from Meliodas and towards them, smiling.

“Are you all okay?”, she asked.

“Yea! You guys did amazing,” Diane told her close friend.

Natsu walked over to Meliodas, and they both stared at each other for a moment. Lucy considered that their rivalry may never end, even after fighting together.

“That was fun,” Meliodas surprisingly said. 

“Yea!”, Natsu responded back enthusiastically, raising his hand for a high five.

The shorter man gladly high-fived Natsu. Erza, Gray, and Ban walked over to where Lucy and the others stood. 

“You guys did great!”, Gray said, directing the comment at everyone.

“Of course they did,” Ban laughed.

“We do work well together,” Erza claimed.

She wasn’t wrong. Even if the two groups didn’t exactly get along in the beginning, they were able to beat Torror.

“I’m glad Fiore is safe again,” Lucy said.

Natsu and Meliodas were walking over, and their conversation came into earshot.

“How did you clone yourself?”, Natsu shouted the question.

“With this,” Meliodas said, holding out his sword.

“You have to teach me that!”

“The ability comes with the sword, so I can’t.”

“Agh, it was so cool!”

“The clone only had half of my power level, though,” Meliodas said.

That was interesting. His sword allowed him to clone himself, while also splitting his power level in half. That was definitely why he didn’t affect the ground as much when he broke out of the air bubble. Lucy wondered how many clones he could make, and if it split the power level every time.

“We should go back to the guild hall,” Wendy said.

“Ooh, that sounds fun!” Diane quipped.

“I would like to apologize to everyone there for our earlier actions,” Gowther said.

“So would I!”, Elizabeth agreed with him.

“You didn’t do much harm, Elizabeth,” King told her.

“You know what we should do when we get back there?”, Meliodas suddenly asked. Everyone turned their attention to him.

“Get drunk to celebrate!”

That was… an idea. It wasn’t something they normally did after a job, but this wasn’t a normal job. The rest of the guild certainly wouldn’t protest the idea. The Sins would probably have to leave soon, so it would be nice to talk with all of them and celebrate before they said their goodbyes. The idea truly made Lucy sad, after they were able to work together so well and finally develop trust and friendship.

“Let’s do it!”, Natsu shouted.

“Aye sir!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope that i didn't miss any major or minor points in torror's character, or anything else i should've included in the battle. i want to note that when meliodas said 'not all of them' about killing the vampires, he was referring to gelda (who he only sealed) because he's a cheeky brat. i really hope you all enjoyed this chapter! i would appreciate feedback because i'm not that experienced at writing action and want to know how i did :). the next chapter will be the last one, so it should be up in a few days!


	14. In Memories, Seven Colors Are Turning Into Snow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tired from their battle, the Fairy Tail guild members and their new friends, decide to celebrate their win the way of the Seven Deadly Sins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here it is, the final chapter :(. it's a little over 2,500 words, so i hope you all enjoy! 
> 
> also, when writing this chapter i seriously overused italics, sorry.

They immediately planned to take the train back to Magnolia so they could get back as soon as possible.

However, once they started walking towards the train station, they realized their largest problem. It was quite literally large, considering the fact that Diane had no way to get smaller like she had been before. 

They ended up riding on her shoulders, and it was terrifying. Natsu and Wendy still felt sick, strangely enough, considering the fact that she wasn’t a vehicle. Lucy almost felt bad for Diane, no matter her size there was no way it was fun to have ten people and two boisterous cats on her shoulders. 

The group had no idea how Magnolia, or Fairy Tail, would react to her. She complained that she wanted to celebrate with them, and Lucy wouldn’t stop her. None of Team Natsu would, not after the demonstration all of them just pulled off. 

When they _finally_ got to town they stood on the outskirts for a moment, unsure what to do. They were all hungry, and it was obviously the smartest choice to go to the diner they frequented after jobs. That would involve leaving Diane on the outskirts alone, just standing there. Of course King said he would stay with her, but if anyone spotted them, it would be chaos. 

Instead the group decided to veer around the large town, and over to the guildhall. Surely there was a spot she could sit down and peer into a window. Lucy found that idea inane, but according to them she used to do that at their tavern all the time. They had to make the point that the guild hall _wasn’t_ the tavern, and that the people inside would definitely be shocked. The Sins didn’t take it to heart, insisting that it would be fine in the end.

Lucy also considered that her guild mates would probably not be happy to see the people who completely destroyed their guild hall just days previously, but Erza insisted she would clear it up. 

As they neared the guild hall, they could see it had already been rebuilt. Team Natsu was thankful for that.

“I feel kinda bad for destroying it now,” Meliodas told them, though the way he chuckled as he said it definitely said otherwise.

“Me too,” Diane said from behind them.

Ban shrugged, and Lucy thought she heard King say something from behind them.

“I’m still so sorry about that,” Elizabeth said for the dozenth time.

“It’s not your fault,” Erza told the women, sending a glare Natsu’s way.

“It wasn’t _my_ fault!” he yelled.

“And it definitely wasn’t your fault, Elizabeth. You didn’t even do anything wrong,” Wendy declared to the girl.

“She’s right,” Carla claimed.

“I still feel awful.”

“Come on, I’m sure no one will even mind,” Lucy said to her, walking up towards them.

She had been very wrong. As they finally arrived in the guild hall, all of the heads turned towards them. A lot looked displeased, and some even looked scared. Mira was clearly excited to have them back, immediately breaking out into a smile and waving them further in. 

Meliodas was walking like he hadn’t been the must destructive one of them the last time he had been there, and Ban looked perfectly relaxed. King definitely wasn’t comfortable in the building, but he wasn’t shy. Gowther waved at the people staring, completely unaware to their distaste for him. Technically he inadvertently caused the fighting and damage that came with it. Lucy didn’t see it that way, but she knew how her guild mates would think. Elizabeth was standing close to Meliodas, and she was giving a small smile to everyone she looked at. She had made her guilt on the matter very clear, and Lucy almost felt bad for her, considering the pointed looks everyone was giving her. She deserved those looks the least out of all of the Sins.

“Gray!” a familiar voice rang out from next to Mira. Well, she had originally been next to Mira, but in the blink of an eye she was next to the ice mage.

“Hey Juvia,” Gray told her.

“Are you all okay?” she asked, clearly cautious about the presence of the Sins.

Lucy decided to clear it up, loud enough for everyone to hear, “Yeah, even Natsu and Meliodas get along now!”

Both guys looked at each other, as if challenged by the statement. Before they could make a proclamation of war against each other, Mira spoke up.

“That sure is surprising,” she laughed.

“Were you guys successful?” Makarov asked both groups.

“Yep,” Meliodas smiled.

“Um… wasn’t there another one of you?” Levy asked, walking up to Lucy.

Before any of them could brace the guild for Diane’s _large_ presence, a voice rang out from the left, “I’m right here!”

Lucy almost felt bad, because the entire guild screamed out in shock at the large face that was peaking through the window. It was comical to see some of their face’s, however.

“This is Diane’s… true form, as a giant from Britannia,” Erza told the guild, but even she sounded unsure about it.

Several different people yelled out, completely shocked. 

“I’m glad she told us she was a giant before getting big like that,” Wendy whispered to Lucy. She had to agree.

It took about twenty more minutes for them to get the guild to stop being completely wary of the Sins, especially Diane. They also had to briefly explain the threat, because Makarov all but demanded to know, which took a good chunk of time. Erza gave the devastating news of what happened to Quatro Cerberus and their guild to Makarov, and he instantly agreed to tell the council as soon as possible. Lucy still felt horrible for what happened to their guild, and hoped that the other members were okay.

Once they got all of the important things out of the way, Meliodas stood up. Most of the guild flinched, thinking he was about to make an attack. Instead of pulling out his sword or having demonic symbols appear all over him, he smiled. Ban seemed to understand what was happening, and so did the other Sins. 

“So, are we celebrating by getting drunk or not?”

Before any of those who had actually been on the job could get a word out, Cana yelled out from the bar, “Hell yeah!”

That’s how everyone in the guild who was old enough to drink ended up with a cup in their hand. Even Diane had one, even if it was both too small for her and too large for anyone in the building. 

Lucy was sitting next to Elizabeth, but the blue haired girl had shockingly decided not to get a drink. They’d both been talking about some of the journeys they had been on. Elizabeth was clearly being selective about what she revealed, but Lucy couldn’t find it in herself to care. There was a very obvious question on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn’t figure out how to phrase it politely. So once Elizabeth finished talking about a time she chased Hawk (who Lucy learned was also known as Captain of Scraps by Gowther) all around town, Lucy decided to ask her question.

“Are you really a goddess?”

The moment the blunt words left her lips, she regretted them. Elizabeth didn’t look negatively affected by them, but Lucy still felt rude for phrasing it that way. Much to her surprise, Elizabeth started laughing.

“Yeah, sorry, I guess that’s shocking,” she said once she regained her composure.

Lucy had no words. Her jaw dropped open, and all she could do was stare. How in the world did that even work? She was a literal goddess. 

“Sorry! I know it’s probably unexpected to you guys.”

“No, don’t worry about it! It’s not like it’s your fault.”

Both girls smiled at each other, happy with the newfound trust them and their corresponding nonbiological families had found in each other.

The sweet moment was short lived, because Meliodas shouted over for Elizabeth. Beside him was Natsu, and the two of them were actually having a civil conversation. It was definitely filled with jokes and probably trying to one-up each other, but it was a conversation nonetheless. 

“Elizabeth, remember that time we saw someone create fire in their palm and didn’t know what type of power they had? I bet they came from Fiore,” he told her. She got up and walked over, and Lucy followed her.

Elizabeth looked up for a moment, obviously thinking hard. Then she looked at him, still confused.

Lucy didn’t hear her faint whisper, or see the words she mouthed to him, “Which life was that?”

All Lucy witnessed were the two start laughing, Meliodas much more than her. Natsu’s face morphed into pure confusion, but Lucy watched him shake his head. She only assumed he heard whatever made them break out into laughter. Another prominent question surfaced itself in her mind.

“Also, I was curious, what exactly _is_ Gowther?” Lucy asked.

“Oh, he’s a doll,” Meliodas said as if it was obvious.

All of them gaped at him, even Elizabeth, probably from his bluntness. Lucy would have spent a long time pondering it had she not been drinking already. Instead she just shook it off and began to look around, enjoying the sight of everyone getting along.

On the other side of the room, Lucy saw Cana and Ban both holding overflowing cups of alcohol and obviously drunk. They seemed to be having some sort of drinking competition. Lucy smiled, laughing internally at how she should’ve realized the two would get along. She looked to where Diane had found a larger window to poke her head outside of, and Levy was sitting on a table to talk to her. Towards the door Gray, Gajeel, Laxus, King, and Gowther were playing some card game. Gray’s cards were abandoned, and the shocked look on his face said that he probably figured something new out about their new friends. Gajeel and Laxus looked ready to fight King, who was only looking at them smugly. She heard Gray say something about cheating, and King defending himself proudly. Gowther was correcting everything he said, and Lucy wanted to ask what ‘reading hearts’ was, but decided against it. 

She turned back towards Natsu, who was bickering with Happy. They both looked up at her, noticing her wide smile. The entire guild was happy, even with people they deemed as enemies not long ago. 

“See, they’re not so bad,” Lucy told Natsu. 

—

Lucy woke up in her apartment to light flooding in, and a familiar pink haired man leaning over her. He was smiling devilishly and had a pen in his hand. A blue cat was next to him, laughing. It took her a moment to process what was happening, but when she did she leaned up and kicked him across the room. Instead of just hearing Natsu groan in pain, she heard someone else. It took her a moment to process the five people draped around her apartment. The Sins and Elizabeth were all passed out in separate places, ranging from the sofa to simply laying on the floor. 

Lucy immediately recognized that Ban had been the one she kicked Natsu into, but she couldn’t feel any guilt. Why in the world were all of those people laying there, when it was her home? She debated between blaming it on Natsu or her drunk self, and ultimately decided to forget about it. It wasn’t like they had a place to stay, anyways. 

Ban and Natsu both stood up, looking confused. The two who were on the couch woke up, and so did the other’s. King had been laying his head on Lucy’s table, and Gowther had been laying on the floor. Meliodas and Elizabeth sat up from their spot on the couch, clearly wondering how they got there.

“Oh, you guys are finally awake,” Diane’s voice rang out from the window.

Lucy was scared of the reaction anyone outside must’ve had to the literal giant girl laying in the street outside of her apartment. 

“Why’d you sleep outside?” King asked her, immediately flying out of the window like doors didn’t exist.

“Where else would I have gone,” Diane deadpanned at her lover.

Elizabeth shot up, off of the couch, “Oh, I’m sorry Diane! We probably should’ve had Merlin make you another potion to get small again.”

“It’s fine, it’s kinda my fault.”

“Is this where you live?” Gowther asked Lucy.

“Yeah! But, um, does anyone remember how we all got here?”

Everyone just stared blankly, looking at each other. She took that as a firm no.

“You know what, never mind. It’s not important,” she told them.

Everyone looked calmer, no longer surprised by each other. Lucy knew what was probably coming after that, but she didn’t want it to. She had gotten used to the Sin’s presence, and even grown to like it. She frankly wasn’t ready for them to leave.

Instead of any of them speaking, they heard someone else yell from outside, “Are you guys finally awake?”

It was only Gray, and when they looked out of the window they could see Erza, Wendy, and Carla with him. They all had smiles on their faces, and were looking up at Diane. Lucy ran to get dressed, and soon enough the entire group was standing outside.

“Glad to see you’re all awake,” Erza told them.

“Took ya’ long enough,” Gray remarked.

“Oh shaddup!” Natsu said to him.

“Thank you for letting us stay in your home,” Elizabeth walked up to Lucy.

She smiled sadly, and Lucy knew what they were about to say.

“It’s probably about time you all head back to Liones,” Gowther told them.

“Yeah, I’m sure Howzer, Gil, and Griamore let the kingdom fall apart while we were gone,” Meliodas laughed.

“Don’t joke about that!” Elizabeth yelled at him.

“Me and Diane have to get back to The Fairy King’s Forest soon, too,” King said, directing the statement more at the Sins than Team Natsu. 

“I can’t wait to see everyone!” Diane shouted enthusiastically.

“Yeah, and I miss Elaine,” Ban said casually.

“I suppose I will continue on my journey to find new work,” Gowther said, looking around.

Lucy was only watching as they talked, so she was surprised when Elizabeth walked over and pulled her into a huge. She hugged her back of course, and when they both pulled away they each had a sad smile on their face.

“I’m going to miss you all, it’s so fun here,” Elizabeth said.

“It’s nice having a change of pace from our normal lives,” Erza told them.

“I wouldn’t say our lives are ever normal,” Carla remarked.

“But it was definitely fun having you guys around!” Wendy said.

“Yeah, and having another guy to talk to then flame brain over here,” Gray jabbed a thumb at Natsu.

“Aye!” Happy agreed, even if Natsu was his best friend.

“Hey!” he yelled, “But you’re not evil, even if you _are_ a demon. So I guess you guys are pretty fun to have around,” Natsu ended up saying.

“I’m gonna miss you guys,” Lucy told them.

“Maybe one day when being a king get’s annoying we’ll come back,” Meliodas joked, but he was probably wrong. It was a far journey, and based on the look Elizabeth gave him he wasn’t allowed to just get ‘bored’ of being king.

“Bye!” Elizabeth yelled, already waving as the others began to turn away.

She had to run forward a little to catch up to her friends, but they all looked back for a moment. Diane took up most of the sidewalk, but the rest managed to fit in beside her. Shocked glances were thrown their way, but the Sins didn’t even seem to mind as they all looked ahead of them. They began to talk among themselves, already out of earshot.

Just like that, the six people who brought Team Natsu on an insane journey that Lucy could never have dreamed of, walked down the sidewalk of Magnolia as the start of a long journey back to their home in Liones.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope this was a suitable ending to this story. i'm sad it's ending, it's been so much fun to write this. i hope i tied up all of the loose ends in this chapter. some things may seem rushed, but that's because i wanted to keep the carefree attitude of this chapter and didn't want lucy going into five large paragraph explanations where she tried to make sense of things. 
> 
> i also want to say how much all of your comments meant to me <3\. they inspired me to keep writing this and i probably wouldn't have finished this story if you guys didn't comment feedback and such nice things. this is my first multi-chapter story that i put a lot of effort into, so i really appreciate everyone who read all the way to the end.
> 
> i hope everyone has been staying safe in quarantine, and thank you for reading this!


	15. Sequel

hi! i just posted a sequel to this story, called 'Another Adventure'. original, i know, i'm horrible at naming things :). i'm posting this so that anyone still subscribed to this story can see, so i hope anyone who sees this would like to read that! it will probably only be about half as long as this one, but it features Team Natsu going to Liones. it's from Elizabeth's point of view, so it'll be a little different. i hope that if anyone who sees this does decide to read it you like it, and i want to thank you all once again for all of the love on this story! <33


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